MAC Climber Travels to China for World Cup Competition

By Jake Ten Pas

Any American who grew up on Looney Tunes might once have imagined that if they dug straight down and just kept on tunneling, eventually they’d come out in China. Geographical facts, physical laws, and the ferocious heat at Earth’s core aside, it turns out that down might not even be the right direction!

As MAC Climbing sensation Alyssa Keanini recently discovered, the best way to get to China is straight up. After first ascending to the U.S. National Team Trials in March, she was picked for the National Development Team and invited to compete at an International Federation of Sport Climbing World Cup event in Wujiang, China, in April.

“IFSC World Cups are the highest level of competition in the sport of Climbing. These events bring together the best athletes from across the globe, serving as a critical pathway for athletes aiming for the Olympics. Alyssa’s placement onto the U.S. National Development Team and her invitation to compete in Wujiang solidified her position as one of the best climbers in the country,” crows Head Climbing Coach Justin Rom.

“Both achievements are significant for MAC Climbing, as neither have been done before. She has been a leader on this team since she joined, and I am elated that her effort and dedication led her to compete on the world stage. I could not be prouder of her.”

Keanini sends the enthusiasm right back to Rom, his colleagues, and her peers. “The coaching from MAC has been invaluable to my progress. Also, being able to climb with my teammates in and outside of practice, especially when I was training for the cup, helped me improve a lot.”

As elevation gains go, Keanini’s feels dramatic, although the reality is slightly less so. Now 17, she first started climbing at 10 when she was looking for a replacement activity for gymnastics. “As a kid, I always wanted to climb trees, but my parents didn’t let me,” she says, smiling. Walking through downtown Vancouver — her family lives on the east side of the city, close to Camas — she and her mom came upon a climbing gym and decided to try a summer camp. Afterward, she was invited to join the team, which eventually led her to the 2021 Nationals in Reno, where she first fully encountered the culture of MAC Climbing.

“I had become friends with a couple of people on MAC’s team, and they invited me to their team dinner. It was a lot of fun hanging out with them, and they were all such close friends. The camaraderie and opportunities provided by MAC drew me in, and I wanted to be part of it and learn from them,” she recalls.

In the three years since joining Team MAC, she’s gone from national-level stakes in the “Biggest Little City in the World” to exclusive international competition in the world’s third-largest country. Oh yeah, and before leaving for China, she had never traveled further abroad than Canada.

“This is my second year in the Elite Series, but it was my first year at team trials because I didn’t make them last year except for Speed,” Keanini says. “It’s been very intense because it’s a bigger scale than I’ve done before. I’m used to just competing against people my own age, but now there are adults and professionals, people I’ve been looking up to, which is also kind of cool. This year I feel like I really grew and was able to perform my best.”

Keanini attributes her improvement to training in the areas where she needed the most work, including dynos, or dynamic moves, which involve leaping away from the wall in order to reach the next hold. “I think women on average are more flexible, which helps for getting into specific body positioning, and we usually have smaller hands, which helps on crimps, but then hurts on pinches,” she explains, referencing two different kinds of grips. “While I can’t generally jump as high for dynos, I think I make up for it with how I can climb statically.

“I’ve just tried to train my hops and become more comfortable with not hesitating and going all out for moves.”

Just as she enjoys the challenge of pushing herself on the wall, the adventure of traveling to the other side of the world appealed to her. Despite knowing a couple of people on the Japanese National Team who had previously come to train with the 2022 Top 10 Youth National finalists at USA Climbing’s Training Center in Salt Lake City, Utah, she says the language barrier was difficult all around. “Everybody’s really nice, and we all just smiled at each other,” Keanini adds.

“They held an opening ceremony, and each country had a representative walk across the stage waving their flag while music was playing.” In addition to event organizers making everyone feel welcome, Keanini’s dad accompanied her on the trip, making her feel comfortable and safe. She describes both her parents as huge cheerleaders whose enthusiasm and nervousness for their daughter sometimes results in questionable camerawork as their palms become sweaty while holding their phones.

Most of the Keaninis’ time was taken up with competition, but they did get a few opportunities to explore the city and even venture to the ancient water town of Jingxi. “It was a whole city on a lake that preserved the classical Chinese architecture, and it was really beautiful to see.” She also delighted in dumplings at a street shop where the proprietor cooked them on the spot in a huge wok.

Her next big journey might well be attending Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, where she’ll major in computer science and business interdisciplinary studies this fall, but Keanini also holds out hope for another World Cup invitation this season while she remains on MAC’s team. Either way, she’s proud of her progress and thankful for the opportunities she’s claimed.

“I’m pretty happy with how I did,” she says of finishing 52nd among women at the Wujiang competition. “Reading a book that coach Drew [White] mentioned to me, With Winning in Mind, changed my thinking. One of the big points is to focus on your performance and your self-image, and not the results. If you prepare and visualize climbing well, the results will follow.”