17-year-old American Colin Duffy, the youngest athlete participating in sport climbing's Olympic debut, firmly established himself among the medal contenders of the men's competition by finishing third in Tuesday's qualification round.
The Colorado native was sixth-fastest in the speed discipline, performed fifth-best in the bouldering round and was second-best on the lead wall. Multiplied together, those results earned him 60 points toward the total ranking in which the lowest scores rank highest.
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Duffy was the only climber out of 20 participants to notch top-10s in all three disciplines. He qualified third to the eight-man final round, behind only France's Mickael Mawem and Japan's Tomoa Narasaki, the 2019 world champion.
Duffy, a two-time youth world champion on the lead wall, fought through the most grueling of the sport's three disciplines to come within touching distance of topping the 15-meter-high wall.
Duffy's more experienced teammate, American Nathaniel Coleman, produced a timely top-five finish on the lead wall to qualify to the final round in the eighth and final position.
All scores reset for the final round, scheduled for Thursday at 4:00 a.m. ET. Stream the entire session LIVE on NBCOlympics.com and on the NBC Sports app.
