In a historic event that saw Sport Climbing enter the Youth Olympic Games Buenos Aires 2018 as an official sport, Victoria was lucky to be represented by Ned Middlehurst who qualified for the Australian Olympic Team last year at the Oceania Championships.
The opening ceremony was held on 6 October 2018 with climbing one of the first sports to compete. Women qualifications for all three disciplines (speed, lead and boulder) were held on Sunday 7 October 2018. This gave Middlehurst an additional day to prepare for his competition with the men’s qualification held on Monday 8 October.
Middlehurst finished 21st in Speed, 19th in boulder and 18th in lead to give him a combined rank of 21st.
For full results, click here.
We caught up with Middlehurst to hear about this extraordinary experience:
“Representing Australia at the first Youth Olympic Games was really quite special. As it was the first time that climbing was in the Olympics it made the experience quite special and unique.
My overall performance was a little questionable but I had fun nonetheless. All in all I definitely rate climbing being in the Olympic format and having climbing on such a high level as the Olympics is really something special and something that can really push this sport forward.”
Congratulations Ned on making the Olympic Team and we look forward to seeing what Middlehurst does next!
