Oceania Mackenzie has scaled new Olympic heights for Australia, hauling herself into bruising contention for the country’s first medal in sport climbing before her soaring hopes finally fell to earth in Paris.
The 22-year-old Melburnian, who had never made a podium in any World Cup event, found herself in rarefied air when she actually clambered into the bronze medal position in the bouldering and lead combined final at halfway on Saturday.
But reality finally dawned at Le Bourget Climbing Centre in Mackenzie's weaker discipline, as she fell off the fiendish lead wall early, plummeting overall from third to seventh in the eight-woman final.
But the performance of Mackenzie, a German-born athlete with New Zealand parents, was hugely creditable, and a major improvement on her 19th position in the inaugural event in Tokyo 2021 when she failed to make the final.
It was brutally hard work too in challenging hot and windy conditions. "What's hurting? Mostly my forearms," she said.
"I had a lot of lactic acid build-up in them, I was a little bit out of breath too."
In this test of climbers’ technical ability, physical prowess and problem-solving nous, Mackenzie eventually ended with 104.8 points (59.7 for bouldering and 45.1 for lead) as the great Slovenian Janja Garnbret won her second Olympic crown on 168.5.
It didn't prove quite as comfortable as expected for the 25-year-old Garnbret, though, as she suffered what appeared to be a finger injury during the bouldering.
But, last to climb, it still didn't stop the woman known as climbing's 'GOAT' to surpass American silver medalist Brooke Raboutou's total of 156. Austria's Jessica Pilz took bronze on 147.4.
Mackenzie had earlier surpassed herself in her four bouldering climbs, where athletes have to reach the summit of 4.5m walls without ropes inside a four-minute limit and in the fewest attempts possible.
She earned a perfect 25-point score with her first completed climb, and successfully reached her next final hold with just a couple of minor errors, before the difficulty ramped up and she struggled on her final two outings, even though she still ended up surpassed only by Garnbret and Raboutou.
"I really enjoyed the boulders today. They were quite challenging,” she said.
“Especially the lead route. I found it quite hard, but I definitely feel like I did my best.”
But things only got tougher for her in the lead event, where the climbers, this time with ropes, had to ascend a 15m-plus wall in six minutes without having seen the route beforehand.
Mackenzie began to look tired and uncomfortable, losing her grip halfway through her ascent and plummeting downwards.
