Soaring high: Indonesian speed climber competes for rare Olympic gold medal

But in recent years, the Southeast Asian island nation has emerged as an unlikely powerhouse in speed climbing, breaking records and winning multiple medals at top international competitions.

Climbing, a combination of three sports, will be featured for the first time at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. Speed ​​climbing will be a standalone event for the first time at the Paris Olympics in 2024.

Competitors scale a standardized 15-metre (50-foot) vertical route, and the winner is the one who reaches the top in the fastest time, usually within a matter of seconds.

“As the day approaches, I don't want to think about anything else,” Desak, one of two Indonesian speed climbers to have qualified for Paris so far, told AFP after a training session at the national team facility on the outskirts of the capital, Jakarta.

“I'm just focused on the Olympics.”

Indonesian climbers generally excel in speed formats, where their small stature gives them speed and agility, but they also owe their success to sheer dedication and teamwork.

“If we keep complaining about our short height, we will never be able to compete,” national wall-climbing coach Hendra Bashir told AFP.

“So we focus on our strengths as small people. We're blessed with agility.”

Dessac has been climbing mountains since she was a child and got the chance to fulfil her Olympic dream when she won gold in the women's speed event at the World Championships in Switzerland last year.

Joining Dessac in the race for gold in the French capital will be 23-year-old Ramad Adi Mulyono, who advanced after beating competitors from Indonesia in the qualifying rounds.

“Of course I felt burdened at first, but as time went on I felt I had nothing to lose,” he told AFP.

The pair decided to focus on speed climbing rather than lead and bouldering, the other two climbing events in Tokyo.

“I am optimistic. The first thing is to upgrade myself, focus and shorten the time (to the top) every time I train,” Rahmad said.

Hendra said the athletes had been training for years to ensure Indonesia, which has not generally performed well in international sport, had a chance to win an Olympic gold medal.

“It's been a very long process since 2019, starting with the qualifiers for the Tokyo Olympics and then the break (due to the pandemic),” he said.

Although speed climbing still lags far behind soccer and badminton in terms of sporting prominence in Japan, its popularity is growing.

But when it comes to speed climbing and other climbing disciplines, the local sports industry remains underdeveloped, and athletes are often left with big walls to scale.

“There is a slight hope that, God willing, the Indonesian team can win an Olympic gold medal, but the reality is that the journey to get here has been incredibly difficult,” Hendra said.

But there is optimism that the promise shown by Speed ​​will be mirrored on the walls of Paris.

Former world record holder Vedrick Leonard can still qualify for the Olympics if he performs well at a competition in Hungary later this month.

“Of course we are hoping to see a surprise performance from speed climbing, which is a new Olympic sport,” Indonesian Olympic Committee president Raja Sapta Oktohari told AFP.

“There are world champions in this sport and I hope Indonesian athletes will achieve great things and make new history at the 2024 Paris Olympics,” he added, referring to Desak.

But the competition will be stiff: Vedrick's world record of 4.90 seconds was broken twice in April by American Samuel Watson and now stands at 4.798 seconds.

Regardless of the pressure and the weight of expectations, Desak is ready to give it his all.

“I hope my dream of hearing the Indonesian national anthem ring out at the Olympics will come true,” she said.

“My dream is to win a gold medal.”

dsa/jfx/pst