With over 300 days of sunshine per year and access to seemingly endless hiking and biking trails, climbing crags, reservoirs and more, it’s no surprise that a number of athletes call Boulder their home base. It’s an incredible place to train, no matter your level—especially when you’re talking Olympic level!
As we collectively turn our eyes to Paris for the summer festivities—and prep for the eight-hour time difference—there are a number of Boulder-based athletes to cheer for, no matter your favorite event.
Taylor Knibb
Qualifying for one Olympic sport would be impressive enough, but Taylor Knibb is heading to Paris for two separate disciplines. Last August, she qualified for the 2024 U.S. Olympic Triathlon Team at the World Triathlon Olympic Games Test Event, held on the Paris Olympic course. This May, she secured her spot on the U.S. Cycling Olympic Team with her victory at the 2024 USA Cycling Pro Road National Championships, held in Charleston, West Virginia.
This is far from her first time on the national stage. At the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, she was the youngest US Olympic triathlete to compete, placing 16th in the individual event and earning the silver medal at the debut Mixed Relay event.
Knibb was also the youngest woman to win the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship in St. George, Utah, back in 2022. It’s very unique to be able to compete in short-course, draft-legal triathlons and in long-course IRONMAN triathlons. It speaks to her versatility as an athlete, honed over many years of competing.
Her journey began at a young age when she saw her mom compete in an IRONMAN race and was inspired to try a kids’ race. It has since brought her all over the world, keeping Boulder as her home base.
Morgan Pearson
Knibb isn’t the only Mixed Relay teammate heading back to the Games this summer. Morgan Pearson had a disappointing performance in the Triathlon, where brutal conditions and a penalty compounded, landing him in 42nd place. The next week he came back and ran the team to Silver.
That’s since set him on an upward trajectory. Like Knibb, Pearson qualified for Paris right out the gate at the 2023 World Triathlon Paris Test Event last August, and he’s picked up some more hardware since then. This May, he won the 2024 World Triathlon Championship Series Yokohama race, making him the first U.S. man to win a World Triathlon Series since 2009.
Pearson lived and trained in Boulder when he did his undergrad at CU—Sko Buffs! There he competed in cross-country and track and field and was a seven-time NCAA All-American.
Colin Duffy
At age 17, Colin Duffy became the youngest climber to qualify for the Olympic debut of climbing in Tokyo. He got an early start on the sport, beginning at age five, before joining Team ABC in Boulder at age eight.
Known for “comp” climbing (aka the indoor Bouldering, Lead and Speed disciplines we’ll see in Paris), Duffy has also climbed multiple 5.14s outside, as well as a V14 boulder problem.
Duffy has won four IFSC World Cup Medals. Two were gold medals at the Innsbruck World Cup in 2022 where he set a record for being the first male to win both bouldering and lead in the same World Cup event. More recently, he won the silver medal in the combined event at the IFSC World Championships to secure his spot in Paris.
Brooke Raboutou
Unsurprisingly, Brooke Raboutou also grew up climbing on Team ABC, where she trained under Robyn Erbesfield and Didier Raboutou, her world-class climber parents. They run ABC Kids Climbing and the elite Team ABC Boulder and split their time between Boulder and St. Antonin, France.
Raboutou competed in Tokyo in 2021 where she finished in fifth place at their debut climbing showcase. She’s also made a name for herself outside as the youngest woman to climb 5.14b at age 11 and was the second female to top out Box Therapy, a boulder problem in Rocky Mountain National Park that she's proposed downgrading from V16 to V15.
Last April, she won her first-ever IFSC Climbing World Cup gold medal in Hachioji, Japan. At the time of print, she was still trying to clinch her spot at the Games, having just won the Olympic Qualifier Series in Shanghai.