On August 7th (Chinese time), in the final of Sport Climbing Women’s Speed at the Paris Olympics, Deng Lijuan, a 2021 undergraduate student from the School of Management at Donghua University, won the silver medal with a personal best (PB) time of 6.18 seconds, just 0.08 seconds behind the gold medalist. This is also the first Olympic medal won by the Chinese team in the Sport Climbing event, marking a historic breakthrough.
(Deng Lijuan at the left)
In the qualification round of Sport Climbing Women’s Speed which was held on the evening of August 5th, Deng Lijuan finished with a PB of 6.40 seconds, qualifying for the quarterfinals in 6th place. In the quarterfinals, Deng Lijuan faced off against Kusuma, an Indonesian athlete, and advanced to the semifinals with a 0.006-second advantage. In the semifinals, Deng Lijuan once again encountered an Indonesian athlete, Sallsabillah, and won with a 0.03-second advantage, showcasing her exceptional climbing stability.
In the final, Deng Lijuan faced off against the world record holder, Polish athlete Mirosław. She set a new PB of 6.18 seconds and also established a new Asian record, earning a precious silver medal in the Sport Climbing Women’s Speed at the 2024 Paris Olympics. This represents a major breakthrough in the history of Chinese sport climbing, as it is China's first-ever Olympic medal in this discipline.
Previously, Deng Lijuan had already won 5 gold medals in Women’s Speed event at IFSC Climbing World Cup in 2022, 2023, and 2024. At the 19th Asian Games Hangzhou, she also won the gold medal in the Women’s Speed Relay and the silver medal in the Individual Speed Event of the 19th Asian Games Climbing Competition in Hangzhou. Since obtaining her Olympic qualification last November, she has trained diligently from place to place, and ultimately achieved this outstanding result at the Paris Olympics.
