CONDIE Kyra

Preferred discipline
Bouldering (climbing.com, 16 Oct 2019)

General
FEMALE IMAGE IN ROCK CLIMBING
She lives and trains with her best friend, Canadian climber Allison Vest. She says the pair regularly receive negative messages via social media, including assumptions they are a couple, comments about their physical appearances, as well as other forms of sexual harassment. "Female athletes tend to get a lot of shitty comments about looking muscular. This week, two different people I know were like, 'You look really muscular, in a good way'. [But] there's not a bad way [to look muscular]." However, she says the sport has become more inclusive for women since her early days in rock climbing when it was male-dominated. "At the training centre this morning [February 2021], there were more girls than guys. That's completely foreign to me." (vogue.com, 08 Feb 2021)

OLYMPIC FORMAT
She says she would have preferred climbing at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo to have speed, lead and bouldering as individual medal events rather than combined. "I would prefer it to have single disciplines, just because I like bouldering the best, but this format will be cool. It's better than just getting one single discipline, that would have been a lot more disappointing." (climbing.com, 16 Oct 2019)

BACK SURGERY
After she began competitive climbing it was discovered she had severe idiopathic scoliosis, a condition that causes the spine to develop an abnormal curve. In 2010 at age 13, she had spinal fusion surgery to correct the 'S' shape curvature of her spine. As a result she is limited in how far she can bend her back, but the operation meant she could still climb. She spent four months recovering before beginning training again. "I got back pain but I figured it wasn't bad enough for surgery. But then I got the call from my doctor saying I'd need to get surgery and [I] just burst into tears. I'm lucky I did [the surgery], because [the surgeon's] approach was to fuse less vertebrae and leave me with more mobility, which has been crucial to my climbing. There's not really any [physical therapy] I can do. It's basically like a healed broken bone." (kyracondie.com, 01 Dec 2019; dmmclimbing.com, 01 Dec 2019; climbing.com, 16 Oct 2019; nbcsports.com, 29 Nov 2019)

TATTOO
She has a tattoo on her leg that reads 'You suck, try harder', which is a quote that was on a wall at the gym where she learned to climb as a child. The tattoo is upside-down, below the line of her shorts, so she can read it when she's sitting and waiting for her turn to climb at competitions. She says the tattoo is a "reminder to stay humble, work hard, and always remember my roots". (vogue.com, 08 Feb 2021)

FUTURE PLANS
She says she hopes to attend veterinary school and become a small animal veterinarian. She has a bachelor's degree in animal science from the University of Minnesota. "Since first grade I'd say I want to be a vet like lots of kids, but I'm actually going to be one. We always had a lot of pets and I've been vegetarian since I was seven because I just love animals. I had wanted to be a doctor at one point, but I think I'd enjoy being a veterinarian more." (kyracondie.com, 01 Dec 2019; dmmclimbing.com, 01 Dec 2019; climbing.com, 16 Oct 2019)