American Sam Watson is the fastest climber in the world. He broke the world record — which he set just two days ago — when he won bronze in the Olympic men's speed climbing small final with a run time of 4.74 seconds, 0.01 seconds faster than his last record.

Despite this achievement, it was Indonesia's Veddriq Leonardo and China's Wu Peng who raced for gold and silver. Leonardo won Indonesia's first gold medal and second overall medal in Paris. 

"I feel very happy, I feel very joyful to bring the first gold medal for Indonesia at Paris 2024 to my country," Leonardo said.

Watson was narrowly beat by Wu in the semifinal. Watson had the stronger start, but Wu raced a then-personal best time of 4.85 seconds to advance to the big final. 

"I have no regrets," Watson said. "I don't think I made any mistake as far as the input I gave as an athlete. Speed climbing is a very low-margin-for-error sport and I was up against some incredible athletes. So no regrets, I'm really proud of [Wu and Leonardo], who advanced to the podium with me. Re-setting another world record also means a lot."

"It's a separate feat for sure," Watson added about how winning bronze while breaking the world record differs from winning Olympic gold. "I wouldn't necessarily say it was the goal of the run to do it as a world record, I just wanted to win and it happened to be by a hundredth of a second. It does mean a lot, it's a big accomplishment, but it's not necessarily something I was trying to do."

Leonardo and Wu both climbed their personal best times in the big final. Wu got the better start, but Leonardo pushed harder and faster as he progressed up the wall. He beat Wu to the top — and to the gold — by 0.02 seconds with a run time of 4.75 seconds.

Then Watson faced Iran's Reza Alipour in the small final. Alipour ran a personal best time of 4.84 seconds in his semifinal climb against Leonardo. He was no match for Watson, who flew up the wall to win the bronze medal and break the world record he set in the qualification round.

Men's speed climbing medalists

🥇Veddriq Leonardo (INA)
🥈Wu Peng (CHN)
🥉Sam Watson (USA)

RESULTS

This is Watson's first Olympic medal. This is the first time the speed discipline has been contested on its own at the Olympics after being separated from the combined format that sport climbing debuted with at the Tokyo Games three years ago. Speed is now its own competition while boulder/lead remain a combined event.

Watson specializes in speed climbing. He did not attempt to qualify for any other events at the 2024 Paris Olympics.