Ava Hamilton feels about climbing how music fans feel about bands they discovered before they became mainstream.
The Glaswegian has known for quite a while of the virtues of climbing as a sport but it’s only recently, since it was introduced onto the Olympic programme, that the rest of the country is beginning to catch up.
“I work in a climbing centre in Glasgow and there’s so many people who’ve seen climbing on the television and have then come in to try it themselves for the first time,” Hamilton says.
“I’m still young but I feel old in terms of how long I’ve been doing the sport compared to all these people who’ve just been introduced to it recently.
“I feel like saying “wait, I liked this before it was cool!”. It’s like when you discover a band before they get big – that’s how I feel about climbing.”
Hamilton is Scotland’s brightest young climbing star, a fact that was confirmed last week when the 17-year-old broke the long-standing British speed climbing record, setting a new time of 8.643 seconds.
And she couldn’t have timed it better to produce her best form, breaking the record at the European Championships, which took place in Villars-sur-Ollon in Switzerland,.
“It was great to finally get the British record - I’d done it in training over a year ago but obviously that’s unofficial so I’ve been trying for a long time to get it officially. To finally get it was great and such a relief,” the teenager says.
"At the Europeans, I ended up being only one place away from making the final. To get so close to the final was mixed feelings because it’s obviously tough when you narrowly miss out but I’d achieved my goal for the competition which was to get that British record. So that's encouraging for the future.”
Hamilton has long shown a talent for climbing, even before she officially took it up as a sport.
One of her earliest memories is from a day trip to Edinburgh, where she became momentarily separated from her family. She wasn’t lost, though – rather, she’d scaled a lamp post and was happily keeping an eye on proceedings from up there.
From that moment, the writing was on the wall when it came to which sport she was likely to pursue.
For some time, Hamilton has been highlighted as an individual with considerable potential as a speed climber but it’s in the past few months since she became a full-time athlete that she’s allowed herself to ponder just quite where that potential could take her.
First on her list of targets is to become British senior champion for the first time, which is something she hopes will be ticked off within days.
Today, the British Lead, Speed & Paraclimbing Championships begin at Ratho in Edinburgh and with Hamilton having been pipped to the title by mere hundredths of a second last year, she’s got her sights firmly set on going one better this weekend.
And despite being hot favourite for the title, Hamilton seems refreshingly oblivious to any pressure upon her shoulders.
“I definitely want to go one better than 2023,” she says.
“The goal is to win and I’m looking forward to climbing in front of a home crowd in Scotland.
“The only pressure I feel is the pressure I put on myself – I really don’t worry about what other people expect from me.”
Much of the upsurge in the popularity of climbing has come as a result of its inclusion in the Olympic Games at both Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024, with GB’s Toby Roberts' gold medal-winning performance in Paris shining a spotlight on the sport in Britain this summer.
Hamilton was, unsurprisingly, glued to her television screen for much of the climbing event at Paris 2024 and she admits that more than a few times, she envisaged herself being on that same stage in four years time.
“My goal is absolutely LA 2028,” she says.
“The women’s speed climbing is next level – the standard is so high and I know everyone will continue improving over the next four years. So there’s a lot of work for me to do to make it to the next Olympics but it’s also really fun to see if I can make it to that level.”
Hamilton is astute enough, however, to know that four years is a lifetime in elite sport and so she’s forcing herself to take one step at a time rather than focus too intently on fulfilling her Olympic dream.
And, given the rapid progress of the sport, the young Scot knows she’s got much work to do before she can contemplate success on the Olympic stage.
“While the LA Olympics is a big goal, I’m going to focus on the year ahead and see how good I can get when I’m dedicated fully to climbing,” she says.
"I want to see if I can become a real contender, or even a winner, of some events over the next year and then I can take it from there.
“As things stand, my run is good – I have good form and good technique but I’m just not strong enough. So if I can work on that, I’ll hopefully get a lot better.
“In the next year, the goal is to be competing with some of the very best climbers in the world.”
