When the world’s fastest speed climbers launched off the starting strip at the 2025 GoPro Mountain Games, flying up the 15-meter wall in mere seconds, the reaction was immediate, electric, and unmistakable: Vail had a new obsession.
This year, speed climbing is back for year two at the 2026 GoPro Mountain Games June 4-7. After last year, the Vail Valley Foundation knew they had to bring this back in full force. The discipline is returning with everything that made it a sensation last summer, plus a deeper, more expansive program, with opportunities for everyone to get involved.
The centerpiece of the speed climbing program is once again the YETI North American Cup Series Vail – Speed. This is not a grassroots local comp. The NACS is a pipeline to the World Cup and the Olympics, and many of the athletes competing in Vail are the same names chasing medals on the world stage.
Two athletes. Side by side. Racing head-to-head up identical routes. The fastest five seconds in sports — right here in the Colorado mountains.
With speed climbing confirmed for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games, the athletes competing at the NACS in Vail this June are some of the very athletes with LA28 in their sights. Watching these competitors race isn’t just watching sport — it’s watching the future of the Olympic climbing program unfold in real time.
“We’re excited to bring the North American Cup back to the GoPro Mountain Games and to once again showcase Boulder and Speed climbing in such an iconic setting,” said Marc Norman, President & CEO of USA Climbing.” After such a successful debut of Speed last year, we look forward to giving athletes and fans another full weekend of intense climbing competition!”
The GoPro Mountain Games are free to the public to attend, but it’s not too late to register to compete!
Emiko Takeuchi Returns to Vail Fresh Off Big Win
Photo by Dan Gajda/USA Climbing.
This teen climber is literally soaring up the ranks. Growing up in Atlanta, GA, Emiko Takeuchi explored several activities as a child. She tried soccer and ballet. She wasn’t bad, but found them boring. Then she tried climbing at a friend’s climbing gym birthday party. She was hooked.
Now at age 17, Takeuchi is a World Cup-level climber who recently landed her inaugural North American Cup victory. She can’t wait to return to climbing walls in Vail at this year’s GoPro Mountain Games.
Takeuchi has competed in the Youth World Championships and has two World Cup competitions under her belt. She excels at all disciplines but has made her most prominent statement in speed. At the season opening North American Cup speed event this April in Bridgeport, Penn., Takeuchi shot up the wall like Spiderwoman and walked away with the gold medal.
She made quarter finals last year at the Mountain Games’ first-ever North American Cup speed climbing competition, and she will compete once again this June in the YETI North American Cup Series Vail – Speed as well as in the North American Cup Series Vail Boulder competition, presented by CELSIUS.
