Introduction

Sarah Tetzlaff started climbing after retiring from gymnastics at the age of 11 and following her brother into the sport. A career on the New Zealand youth climbing team saw Sarah earn continental championship titles in Speed and Boulder and a Bronze in Lead in 2017.

Sarah moved from Wellington to Tauranga in 2018 in order to train at a national training centre with coach Rob Moore ahead of competing in the Buenos Aires 2018 Youth Olympic Games, where she finished 21st.

From 2022 onwards, Sarah decided to focus on Speed alone under her coach's high peformance programme, with Paris 2024 as her long-term goal.

Qualification route

Oceania Qualifier Melbourne 2023 - 1st Place

Sarah earned her Olympic ticket after capitalising on a mistake by Australia's Grace Crowley just below the buzzer in 8.54 seconds - setting a new PB in the process.

Trivia

Sarah is undertaking a Research Masters degree in Environmental Science is an award-winning student of water science, researching the link between shallow groundwater and algae growth in the near-shore shallow water zone along Lake Tarawera.

UKC prediction

Sarah's time won't rank her among the fastest in Paris, but Speed is an unpredictable game. If she can keep improving her PB and hold her nerve like she did in her qualifier event and at the recent Chamonix World Cup - where she set a new PB - she should be able to rank between 10th and 14th.