You smell the chalk on your fingers.

As you grab the next hold to get past one of the hardest boulders in the gym, you hear your other teammates cheering you on, their voices reaching you even when they are tens of feet below. All of a sudden, you hear the smack of one of your teammates falling down onto the mat below you.

As you climb, your fingers aching, back straining and toes curling in to get a better hold on your grip, you feel the adrenaline rush through you. It propels you to the top. You grab the last hold and a giant smile erupts on your face.   

Izzy Orner ‘25 has been climbing since she was eight years old. As a part of the US Rock Climbing Team, she trains every day after school for up to three to four hours to compete at the highest level possible. 

“My biggest accomplishment was getting to go to the Youth World Championships in Seoul, Korea, this year. I got to learn new skills with professionals. I was grateful to know that not everybody gets this opportunity. Everyone wants to do their best on the world stage. It’s an honor to be able to represent your country,” Orner said. 

Orner represented the US in the Youth World Championship, Aug. 18-27. There are only 596 athletes that compete: 323 males and 273 females. Climbers competed in categories of under 20, under 18 and under 16. 

“Leading up to Worlds, I trained seven days a week, two to five hours a day,” Orner said. “I only had about a month to train for Worlds since I qualified at Nationals a month prior to Worlds. The most important training took place before Nationals, which was closer to 35 hours a week over the summer.”

Over the years, Orner has learned to balance multiple hours a week of climbing with school, homework, social events and more.

“[I have to] battle time management with training and being in school, because homework and practice is hard to manage. I train 21 hours a week. That is a huge time commitment on top of school. But, I try my best to manage it and it has been working well,” Orner said. 

The International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC) is the Climbing Youth World Championship is a worldwide championship where thousands of young rock climbers come together to compete in three categories.

The three categories include Boulder, climbing on smaller rock formations or artificial rocks without the use of ropes or harnesses; Lead, techniques in rock climbing where the lead climber clips their ropes into climbing protection as they ascend the climb; and Speed, indoor rock climbing that sees two rock climbers sprint, jump and hail mary to the top as they race side by side. Multiple age groups battle to win the ultimate championship for rock climbing. 

“I feel like a lot of people don’t know that [rock climbing] is in the Olympics now, which is super cool. My biggest dream for rock climbing is to make it to the Olympics and compete for my country. I hope to get there within 10 years, or maybe sooner. That’s the dream,” Orner said.