Natalia Grossman Qualifies for the 2024 Olympics in Sport Climbing and Bouldering

PhysiVāntage athlete Natalia Grossman secured her spot at the 2024 Paris Olympics with a win at the Pan American Games in October. She took gold in the women’s combined event after topping three of the competition’s four boulders in finals and earning enough points on the lead wall to earn her a first-place finish overall. 

The Pan American Games

Climbing is only just beginning to emerge out of its own isolated cocoon. It’s not your typical spectator sport and hasn’t had much of a presence on the international stage beyond its own bubble. Grossman appreciated the opportunity to be a part of climbing’s debut in the Pam Am Games. 

“It was exciting just being there,” she gushes. “I’d never been to South America, and I speak Spanish, so it was special to explore the culture so closely in that way. I’m more used to competing in European countries so I enjoyed mixing it up. It was my first-time being part of a multisport event too, so that added even more magnitude to it.”

Grossman explains how the novelty of the Pan Am Games actually helped her shake off stress. She poured her energy into learning more about all the other types of athletes she encountered there and carving out a place for climbing among the other, more established sports. 

When it came time for the competition itself, Grossman took a wild ride of emotions. It started out with an underwhelming qualifying round that she and her fellow competitors tackled more easily than expected. “Three of us topped all four boulders,” reflects Grossman, “which is much different than you’d see at a World Cup. They just didn’t feel as challenging in comparison. Going into the final I think we all hoped that they would turn up the dial a bit to separate the field.” 

That field of female competitors wasn’t deep—but the strength of the field rose sky-high. “The top athletes were there, but there weren’t a ton of us,” she explains. “It could have been anyone’s game because we were all pretty much on par with one another.” Without a clear champion or underdog, they needed a real test to spread them out.

Finals gave them that. Grossman relished the chance to “get into fight mode” on the noticeably more challenging boulders, earning herself a 15-point lead for her efforts. But she didn’t get too cocky going into the sport climbing section. “I’d just seen one of the men make up 30 points on the lead wall,” she chuckles. “I had a lead, sure, but I didn’t want to lose it.”

Grossman’s struggled with performing under pressure in the past, so she was careful to tread lightly around that kind of thought process. She acknowledged the fear of losing her lead, recognized that fixating on the fear wouldn’t help her in the moment, and treated the route in front of her as its own challenge separate from anything that had already happened. 

“Keeping my mind composed was less of a challenge this time around than it has been,” exclaims Grossman. “I’ve worked so hard on staying present. I concentrate on my surroundings and use my senses to keep me focused on the here and now.”

Grossman’s composure took her all the way to the upper portion of the lead wall and added 88.1 points to her already high score. That was enough to put her on top of the podium en route to Paris. 

Training for Pan Am

Such a strong performance in Santiago stems from a serious shift in perspective on Grossman’s part. After a number of struggles with her physical health and her mental approach to competition, Grossman made adjustments to her training leading up to the Pan American Games. She ended up cutting her climbing volume nearly in half so that she could put more quality effort into her training and feel more rested for peak performances like the Games. “I’d started overtraining without really realizing it,” Grossman explains. “I felt so much better with less.”

Grossman also paid more attention to energy system separation than before. She’d often find herself trying to train both endurance and power on the same day, for example, rather than giving each its own designated time in her schedule. Going into the Games, she made sure to split up the different energy systems across different training days. In combination with the reduction in her overall load, the switch made it possible for Grossman to train with efficiency and intention in mind—not just for the sake of wearing herself out. 

The changes had more than just a physical effect. Overtraining impacts the mind just as much as the body. Grossman admits that she’d “lost the joy of competition” for a while. Some of that can be attributed to the mental fatigue of pushing too hard for too long. Passion’s one of the first things to go when you’re running on fumes. Grossman’s renewed sense of excitement speaks to the work she’s done to transform her training, as well as her mindset around what it takes to bring your best when it counts. 

 Paris 2024

Grossman has intentionally held off on thinking too concretely about the Olympics yet. She’s experienced such success with her strategies for staying in the present that it would do more harm than good to jump ahead. Grossman knows she’ll continue to keep tabs on her training load, so she doesn’t dig herself into another hole, and train in cycles of four-week focuses with time to deload in between. She also aims to put extra emphasis on power so she can improve her dynamic movement and coordination on the wall. 

But Grossman’s attitude has shifted away from preparing for particular competitions and toward meeting her potential overall—and she’s found her sweet spot there. “In the end the Olympics will be just like any other competition where it’s anyone’s game,” she reasons. “Doing my best there means training to be the best climber I can be in general. That’s my focus.”

_________________________________________________________________

Natalia’s favorite PhysiVāntage Nutrition