Tuesday, Watson scaled the 49-foot wall in 4.75 seconds to make it to the men’s finals, beating a world record he set in April.
Thursday he did it again, breaking Tuesday’s record by 0.01 seconds.
In the quarterfinals Watson beat New Zealand climber Julian David, but then fell to China’s Wu Peng in the semifinals.
Watson still had a chance to medal in the small final – which decides who takes home the bronze - and capitalized on it, climbing the wall in 4.74 seconds to beat Israel’s Reza Alipour Shenazandifard.
Wu went up against Indonesia’s Veddriq Leonardo in the big final for the gold, but faltered. On the final podium Indonesia in first, China second and the U.S. in third.
In the women’s combined bouldering and lead semifinals Brooke Raboutou qualified for finals in third place behind competitors from Austria and Slovakia.
Her teammate Natlia Grossman just missed the top eight qualifying mark, finishing 11th.
In the men’s bouldering and lead semifinal competition yesterday [Wednesday], Colin Duffy climbed his way to seventh to qualify for tomorrow’s final.
Also Wednesday, U.S. Climbing athlete Emma Hall took the stage to compete in the women’s speed climbing semifinals where she finished fifth.
This year, USA Climbing launched plans to establish its National Training Center in Salt Lake City, and make Utah the team’s home base.
The team hopes to break ground on the training center in 2025 to prepare athletes for the 2028 Games in Los Angeles.
