The final Olympic Qualifier Series for came to a close in Budapest on Sunday with Brooke Raboutou and Zach Hammer punching their tickets to earn their spots on Team USA, completing the roster for Paris 2024. "It was exciting, it was hard," says Raboutou. "Yesterday was a very hard bouldering round which left us very tired.
We had a lot of adrenaline today, but that was the cherry on top. I’m excited and I’m happy with my climbing." Raboutou, 23, from Boulder, earned a perfect score of 50 points in her qualifying events in Budapest and Shanghai, placing second in and first in Lead on Sunday and earning the title of Olympic Qualifier Series champion.
She's the daughter of former climbing world cup champions Robyn Erbesfield-Raboutou and Didier Raboutou and her older brother Shawn is also a competitive climber. Meanwhile, Zach Hammer, 28, of Ann Arbor won his final race with a finish time of 5.15 seconds, securing him 6th place in the Olympic Qualifier Series.
“It’s been a long journey and I’m super proud of myself," says Hammer, who has been climbing since the age of three. The US team says it's the only team to have filled all eight of its quota places, with the maximum of two quota spots in each event: Speed Climbing and Boulder and Lead climbing. The six remaining athletes had already earned their spots during last year's World Championships and Pan American Games including New Jersey native Jesse Grupper, who took gold in last year's Pan American Games and is the .