Canada - Recent

Oscar Baudrand, a 19-year-old Canadian rock climber who has been training for 15 years, has his sights set on a high-up target -- the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

Born to a family of rock-climbing fans, Oscar and his brother demonstrated a talent for the sport from an early age.

Their parents would bring the kids along when they went for outdoor climbing excursions. Oscar and his brother started climbing outdoors when he was four. Then the family moved to Salt Lake City when he was seven, and there the boys were introduced to a competition team.

Now, determined to fulfill his Olympic dream, Oscar keeps up his training throughout the year.

Climbing not only brought him a lot of happiness but also cultivated his concentration and honed his perseverance, Oscar said, stressing that the best climbers can minimize emotional distress and focus on physical feelings.

Excelling at climbing from a very young age, Oscar attributed his success up to now to his constant mindset of staying in the present.

His goals in the next two years are to finish his pilot studies and become a certified pilot. He will "continue climbing at a high level" in preparation for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

Competitive climbing made its Olympic debut at the 32nd Summer Olympic Games in 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, where two climbing events, men's combined and women's combined, were introduced. Climbers at the Paris 2024 Games compete in two disciplines: speed climbing and bouldering/lead combined.

Shotlist:
Canada - Recent:
1. Various of Oscar Baudrand practicing rock climbing;
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Oscar Baudrand, rock climber:
"It's the type of thing that before you do it, you don't really want to, but after you do it, you're really happy that you did.";
FILE: Canada - Date Unknown
3. Family photo of Baudrand;
4. Various of photo of Baudrand climbing;
Canada - Recent
5. Various of indoor rock climbing gym, climbers
UPSOUND (English) Oscar Baudrand, rock climber:
"In the off-season, usually I'll separate my training into two parts: I'll have a weight lifting and strength building portion, and then the other portion will be climbing. The climbing portion is to keep up on the skills, and to put your strength building to practice. It always changes, but the more experience you have, the more routines and procedures you can create, and therefore, the more consistent you can get.";
6. Various of Baudrand preparing for climbing, practicing climbing;
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Oscar Baudrand, rock climber (starting with shot 6/ending with shots 8-10):
"When you rely on a certain emotion, or a certain mental space to perform well, sometimes those head spaces can be hard to always do. If you have something going on in your life, your mind is distracted, then you won't access that perfect state of performance. But if you delete all emotions, and only focus on what is, you don't focus on a mental feeling, you focus on a physical feeling. That's something that I've been trying to do more and more, and that's what I've seen a lot of the best athletes in the sport do.";
8. Various of Baudrand practicing climbing;
FILE: Canada - Date Unknown
9. Photo of Baudrand climbing;
Canada - Recent
10. Various of Baudrand practicing climbing;
11. Various of climbers in gym;
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Oscar Baudrand, rock climber (starting with shot 11):
"There are 8-year-old kids who have the goal to get to the NBA. For me, it was never that. For me, it was only like, how can I do well at my next competition.";
13. Various of Baudrand practicing climbing, other climbers in gym
UPSOUND (English) Oscar Baudrand, rock climber:
"Definitely, I'll be putting everything that I have into climbing until the 2028 Olympics. That is a big goal of mine. The Olympic values will always stay with me, whether it's in climbing or it's in pilot school, or what other aspects there are in my life. The Olympic values will always stay with me."

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