High ambition: Rising star eyes Olympic ascent for Israeli climbing |
For a country built on metaphors of ascent, not sending a climber to the Olympics feels like an oversight.
Climbing, of course, is new to the Olympic Games — it has been included twice so far — so the talent base is still small. Enter Ayala Kerem, who has a great chance of being the first to represent Israel.
Kerem is not currently a household name, but she is the poster child of Israeli climbing. The 24-year-old narrowly missed out on qualifying for the 2024 Paris Olympics and is now hellbent on doing everything she can to book her spot on the upcoming Olympic team, which will head to Los Angeles in 2028.
“I’m hoping to be there,” she told The Times of Israel with an understated confidence.
This is a confidence shared by Amour Paz, CEO of Israel Climbing.
“Ayala never stops improving in order to stay at the top and earn her place at the Olympic Games, and I truly believe she deserves it — and I deeply believe she will make it to Los Angeles,” Paz said.
Kerem quickly established herself on the climbing scene as a precocious and prodigious talent. Unfortunately, fear of failure spiraled into a self-fulfilling prophecy during the Paris qualifiers in late spring 2024, and Kerem did not place among the top 10 women climbers to earn an Olympic berth. Dreams smashed, she needed time away to pick up the pieces.
“I learned so many lessons from that experience, especially about myself. I took a break from the sport, but then after a while, all I wanted to do was climb. I missed it,” she said.
Asked which lesson stuck with her the most, Kerem said that she “can’t be going through the motions. Every training session, every gym session, everything has to have meaning and purpose.”
Kerem harnessed her early memories to reconnect with why she got into the sport in the first place, and realized that climbing is at her essence; winning the medals is just a nice bonus.
Ironically, with this relaxed state of mind, her results improved, and the medals came. Mere weeks after the Paris Olympics came to an end, Kerem became the first Israeli to medal at the European Championships, where she came in second. And on April 28, she came in third at the World........