(upbeat music)
- [Narrator] Kyra Condy's journey to the Olympics
has literally been an uphill climb.
- It's the first time that climbing will be in the Olympics.
I think we're really setting the stage
for what Olympic climbing will be,
and so it really excites me
that kids who are growing up climbing now can look up to us
and have that dream.
- [Narrator] Kyra's dream began by chance.
- [Kyra] I started climbing actually at a birthday party
when I was about 10 years old at the local gym,
but I had been climbing on everything like my whole life.
- Yeah, Kyra has just got an amazing spirit.
She was climbing out of the crib early.
She was climbing trees.
She was climbing on top of the refrigerator.
She was just always on top of play structures.
- I was totally in heaven because I was already climbing
everything in sight anyway, and so like in gym
where you were supposed to climb the walls
was honestly made perfectly for me.
- [Narrator] It wasn't long before Kyra
began to see some success.
- [Kyra] I realized that there was this pattern of
if I worked hard, I could achieve the goals that I wanted,
so I just kind of kept setting those goals
higher and higher.
- [Narrator] While she achieved new heights,
something unexpected was about to pull her down.
- I had been climbing pretty competitively
for about two years, and during the last year of that,
I was getting really bad back pain.
Wasn't sure what it was
and it's pretty uncommon for
12 year old girls to have really bad back pain
and be complaining about their back all the time.
- [Cathy] She was climbing so intensely
I thought it was just normal soreness.
- Went to the doctor, got an x-ray
and it was really severe right away.
He was like, yeah, you definitely have scoliosis.
- [Cathy] It brought me to tears.
Of course, Kyra's worried about whether
when she's gonna get to climb again.
- You Know, the first doctor was like, you might not climb
and that was just not acceptable.
- We found a surgeon who told me
that I would be back climbing
and that there was no question in his mind
that I would be on top of the podium at some point
and to send him a picture when I was.
- After the surgery,
she
was determined to make it out of the hospital
faster than anybody else
that has ever been, had that surgery.
- [Kyra] So there's this photo of me at the gym
in a bathrobe with my team actually,
because the children's hospital where I got my surgery
was less than five minutes away from the climbing gym
where I started climbing, and so when I got out,
it happened to be the same day as team practice
around the same time when team was practicing
so I went straight to the gym.
- [Narrator] After surgery, Kyra went back to competition
and her star began to rise even faster.
- [Cathy] So this is a little glimpse into Kyra's room
growing up, and you can again,
see how much climbing was a part of her life.
Whenever she won a medal at one of the competitions,
she hung them up here.
All the blues are her first place.
You can see some of the smaller ones are more local comps,
up to the big ones, which are the national comps.
Another thing Kyra liked to do was every time
she was in a competition, you get a bib
that you wear, you have to wear on your back
so the judges can identify you,
and she kept all of her bibs from every single competition.
A lot of times that was my job.
After the comp,"Mom do not lose my bib
and don't try and get it wrinkled"
'cause she does like to have them up in display
and remember.
- [Narrator] For Kyra, success isn't just about hard work,
it's about the support she's had along the way.
- [Kyra] I really lucked out with my parents in general,
and my mom especially is just really positive
and just a force to be reckoned with I think
when it comes to positivity and encouragement.
- [Cathy] Well I always thought
it's a much bigger compliment to be called strong
than to be called beautiful.
It's okay to be strong.
That is beautiful, that is a huge compliment.
- [Kyra] I was making a point to be like,
"oh mom, you look really strong",
and so I think me and my roommate
now do that for each other too,
like a lot of us were are like, "aw man, you look jacked",
and it's like good thing, which it should be.
One of my biggest goals as a professional athlete
and influencer on social media
and things like that is to inspire
the younger generation of climbers,
and especially young girls.
I think a lot of times we're told what we can do
and what our bodies should look like,
and I really wanna break that stigma and
show them that it's cool to be strong.
- [Cathy] Seeing Kyra be so strong,
it's really inspired me to keep pushing myself.
(uplifting music)
- My mom has always been a huge Olympic fan,
and so when climbing got into the Olympics,
she was unbelievably excited.
She told me she was gonna go watch Tokyo,
you know, whether I was there or not.
(Kyra laughing)
And I think that was actually her tactic
to not make me nervous.
- [Narrator] Kyra's parents were lucky enough
to watch their daughter qualify for the Olympics.
(Cathy laughing)
- I love this.
This is like one of my favorite pictures
of you, me, and Kyra.
This is the morning of Toulouse[France].
- [Tom] Oh yeah.
- [Cathy] It was so fun to just to get to see her off
that morning.
Even in this picture, I love it
'cause you can see the determination in her face.
It was just so cool to see her fight so hard on a climb.
- [Tom] Yeah.
- [Cathy] You could just see it at every single move
on that lead climb.
- [Tom] It is such a dream, you know,
you grow up watching the Olympics and just seeing all these
amazing athletes and, and then all of a sudden you realize,
hey, your daughter is competing to become an Olympian.
- [Kyra] Support and be proud of your kids.
That goes just such a longways.
I don't think I'd be where I am without their support.
- [Narrator] Even if that support is now long distance.
- [Tom] Cathy and Kyra are really close.
They-
On the phone together all the time.
- Hey, sweetie. - [Kyra] Hi, mom.
- Hey, Kyra.
- Hey-
How's it going?
- Hi.
- Yeah, dad's here too. - Hello.
(Cathy and Tom laughing)
- Just got done training.
Did a combined day today.
- [Cathy] Oh cool.
So how was speed feeling?
- It was good, we did doubles.
- Kyra always knows when her mom's in the crowd
because her mom is the loudest person yelling,
"Kyra, Go Kyra",
"You got this."
It is so fun to watch.
(Crowd cheering)
- [Kyra] And the rest of my family
won't be able to come watch in Tokyo,
but I know some part of her is still kind of hoping
that she's gonna find some loopholes
so that she can come watch in person.
- [Cathy] I think it's just,
it's important with any relationship,
mother-daughter, friendships is to kind of
really tune into someone's passions and their strengths
and what motivates them and encourage that
and set that up for success,
and I do that for Kyra, and she does that for me too.
- [Man] Do you know where you will put the Olympic medal?
(Cathy laughing)
- Yeah, that, that one, I don't know,
these might have to all come down
if there's an Olympic Medal up there.
- [Kyra] I'm really proud to be representing Team USA.
It's a legendary team.
It's produced a lot of amazing athletes,
a lot of amazing activists, things like that.
I don't think that I could have had any other mom
and ended up where I am, like she has influenced me
in so many ways, both in being a good athlete,
being a good person,
valuing academics, just all sorts of things,
like she amazes me every single day
and people tell me all the time how awesome she is,
and I'm like, yeah, I know, I lucked out.
I could not have done this with any other mom for sure.