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Zach Hammer, an Olympic speed climber for Team USA, is one of the sport climbing team’s youngest competitors. He grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan, attended Skyline High School and trained at Planet Rock Climbing Gym in Madison Heights. Climb sat down with Zach before he headed to Paris for his Olympic debut to talk about speed, training and how he lets off pressure.

Zach Hammer’s competition record

• Qualified for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris (Speed, Men)
• Holds the American speed record for male youth: 5.12
• 2023 YETI National Championships: 5th (Men’s Speed)
• IFSC World Cup 2023, Wujiang: 11th (Men’s Speed)
• IFSC World Championships 2023 in Bern: 16th (Speed ​​​​Men)
• National Youth Championships 2023: 3rd place (Male Youth A, Speed)

The interview

Climb: How did you get into climbing?

Hammer: I started climbing when I was three years old. I have two older siblings and two parents who all started climbing at the same time. My brother, who is six years older than me, first saw a climbing gym while he was doing gymnastics across the street, so he went to try it out. He loved it.

The whole family got into it. It went pretty quickly, from no one in our family knowing how to climb to being hardcore climbers. But I was three. I basically started climbing before I could even walk really well. After a few years, I joined a team that did small competitions for fun. At 14 and 15, during and after the pandemic, I started taking competitions more seriously.

Climb: I know there is another Planet Rock Climbing Gym in Ann Arbor. Why drive an hour to the Madison Heights location?

Hammer: There is a Planet Rock gym in Ann Arbor, but they don’t have a speed wall. My brother was one of the best speed climbers in the country at the time, so it was very important for us to go to Madison Heights.

I was pretty young at the time, but I tried the speed wall and it took me about a minute. As I got older, trying the speed wall became a bit of a routine. But the road to getting there wasn’t so easy – after high school, I drove an hour to the climbing gym practically every day.

Then I would train for three to four hours, drive home, go to bed, and repeat that day after day. I’m definitely grateful to be here now, in Salt Lake, where it’s only a 10-minute drive to the gym and a walk to school. It’s definitely a change.

Climb: Why did you decide to start speed climbing specifically?

Hammer: When you compete in speed mode in competitive climbing at age 12 or younger, you have to compete on a random climb – rather than the standardized speed route – which is also only eight meters high. Although it’s technically speed climbing, it’s a very different type of competition. At the same time, my brother Max was climbing the speed wall for tall people, so I was keen to do that as quickly as possible.

I’ve always been quite a dynamic climber and a jumpy, powerful, explosive climber. My technique as a young boy was terrible, but I could jump. That came in very handy for speed climbing and I won the national speed championships as a C division climber.

Climb: In Tokyo, speed climbing, lead climbing and bouldering were combined into a single competition. Are you glad that speed climbing was separated for Paris?

Hammer: Frankly, the whole climbing community hated that all three disciplines were combined. But that’s how sports go when they’re new to the Olympics. The boulderers and lead climbers couldn’t do their best, the speed climbers couldn’t do their best. It was a lose-lose situation for everyone. This year, the IOC gave us two medals in total. Of course, it’s still not perfect. We’d like them all to be separate, but it’s definitely much better.

For speed climbers it means that we can finally show what we can do.

Climb: What does your current training program look like?

Hammer: I train four to five days a week. On training days, I’m in the gym for about six hours. I get up, have breakfast, and then go to the gym. I warm up, which takes about an hour, and then climb for up to two and a half hours. Then I rest a little and have lunch. Then in the evening, I do a weight lifting session.

On my rest days, I’m usually at the gym for about an hour doing stretching and flexibility work. I’m at a climbing gym every day, but I don’t necessarily climb every day.

Climb: Was there a particular moment when you realized that you really wanted to pursue speed climbing?

Hammer: The biggest moment of my career so far was the World Championships last summer in Bern, Switzerland. At that point, I had never made the final of an IFSC competition. But if I wanted to qualify for the OQS (the Olympic Qualifying Series), I had to clean up at the World Championships. And I ran a personal best that put me in the final for the first time. Basically, I cleaned up at the exact moment I needed to clean up.

Climb: What hobbies do you have besides climbing? What do you do to unwind?

Hammer: I mostly relax by watching TV and playing video games, but besides climbing, my hobbies are slacklining and Frisbee. I don’t do these things that often because I don’t want to get hurt while climbing, but these are definitely some of my favorites.

Climb: Would you like to say thank you to your biggest supporters over the years?

Hammer: The biggest thanks go to my family and coaches. My parents and siblings supported me so much. I wouldn’t have been able to do it without them. Then the coaches, Becca Saag, the head coach at Planet Rock, Madison Heights. She was incredibly important for my development as a climber and as a person. She is a phenomenal coach and is now doing a great job with the athletes.

And then there are my current coaches, Albert Ok and Matt Maddison, who live here in Salt Lake. They help me reach my potential.

This interview has been slightly shortened for reasons of space.