Mixed feelings for Sam Watson in Paris after he beats US teammate to break own climbing world record

LE BOURGET, France — There were mixed feelings for American Sam Watson after he broke his own world record for speed sport climbing at the Paris Olympics on Tuesday.

He accomplished the feat in an elimination heat against American teammate Zach Hammer.

“It sucks, there’s no better way to put that,” Watson said. “I love him, he’s like a brother to me. We’ve trained so much together. It means so much to be on the stage with him, regardless of how that ends up.”

Watson set the time of 4.75 seconds to improve his mark of 4.79 from the Wujiang World Cup in April.

He blamed himself for not getting a faster time in the qualification run that determined the seedings, which would have likely allowed him to avoid going against Hammer.

“I think I honestly had a little bit of fault in the fact that I couldn’t get a faster second run and get the one seed going in," he said. "But, I mean, he really did leave it all out there, and I hope he’s proud of himself.”

Hammer was.

“It sucks that it happened to be at the biggest event,” Hammer said. “Although, I’m very proud of myself, and I’m very happy that I — even though I’m tearing up now — I really enjoyed this whole experience.”

Hammer said it's “fun” but “never great” to face his teammate.

“We race a ton in practice, so we’re comfortable together,” he said. “But you know that only one can move on. So, yeah, it did kind of sting. But Sam and I are really close friends. It ended up fine. You know, we gave each other a big hug afterward. It was a good moment. And I’m super happy for him. And he was just happy for me.”

Watson said it took a while to sink in that he had just beaten Hammer, who congratulated him on the world record immediately after the race.

“I hit the buzzer at first, and then I looked over, I gave a salute to the crowd, and then I realized, ‘Man, this is against Zach,’” Watson said. “And we’ve had a lot of conversations together, and I’m really, really, really proud of him. And I gave him a big hug. And I truly believe that he’ll continue going on the world stage and being the best athlete he can alongside me.”

Watson broke the world record not long after Leonardo Veddriq of Indonesia had equaled his previous mark of 4.79.

“I was thrilled with the record, but I knew Watson was still going to compete and that he had the potential to take it away from me again,” Veddriq said through a translator.

Athletes have found fast walls at the sport climbing venue and have been setting several personal and Olympic records. Everyone who qualified for the final improved on the previous Olympic record of 5.45 from the Tokyo Games.

It also helps that this time the speed event is not linked to the boulder and lead events, as was the case three years ago in Tokyo, when only one gold medal was awarded after athletes competed in all three disciplines and the final scores reflected the combined results. In Paris, two gold medals will be awarded for the men and women — one will be a combined competition of bouldering and lead, and the second will only feature a speed event.

“I think the idea of having its own medal definitely incentivized that and allowed speed — and bouldering lead — to have their own positive platforms, and I’m really happy that’s the case,” Watson said.

On Monday, Aleksandra Miroslaw of Poland twice broke her own sport climbing world record in the women’s speed. The new mark for the women's competition is 6.06 seconds.