Introduction

Colin is one of just a handful of climbers who will be competing at their second Olympic games, a feat made all the more impressive by the fact that he will only be twenty years old when he competes in Paris. 

Colin has been climbing for quite some time, since he was three years old, in fact. At the age of eight he started climbing at ABC in Boulder Colorado, under the tutelage of Robyn Erbesfield-Raboutou, who - for those who didn’t already know - won four consecutive overall World Cup titles in the 1990s.

Despite being just twenty years old, Colin has already provided fans of competition climbing with some magical moments. Anyone who tuned in to the 2022 World Cup series will know what we’re talking about, his double Gold - Boulder and Lead - at the home of hard comp climbing, Innsbruck, showed that he has the power, endurance, and mentality to perform under pressure at the highest level. If you need any more evidence, look back to his performance in the Boulder final at Meiringen in 2022, where he had to repeat the same boulder three times because his first two ascents were invalidated for illegitimate starts. Did it get under his skin? Yes. Did he use that frustration to cruise to the top for a third time? Absolutely. He topped that boulder more times in two minutes than the other five finalists combined!

Finishing seventh in the final of the Tokyo Olympics isn’t a fair representation of what was a very consistent performance from Duffy. With a third place in Lead, a fourth place in Boulder, and a fifth place in Speed, he was the only athlete in the final to finish in the top five of all three disciplines, and the only athlete to finish in the top four of both Lead and Boulder. His 2023 hasn’t been the season he’d have dreamed of, with just three finals and a single podium to speak of, but he was on the podium in Bern, when it mattered most, and if he finds form in 2024 then he’ll be a podium threat in Paris.

Qualification route

IFSC World Championships Bern 2023: 2nd Place (Boulder & Lead)

A solid round in the Boulder and a second place in the Lead were enough to secure Colin 2nd place.

Trivia

Duffy’s double Gold at Innsbruck made him the first male athlete to win both Bouldering and Lead climbing at the same World Cup.

UKC prediction

4th place

It’s hard to know with Colin, he’s not had the most incredible 2023, but he’s got a special mix of raw talent and comp experience that very few twenty year olds have. With added Olympic experience on his side, we see him finishing just outside the medals.