A champion amoung us
When university President Wallace Loh welcomed the class of 2017 at Xfinity Center this past fall, he mentioned that there was a national champion rock climber sitting among them.
He was talking about Thomas Pitzel, a then-freshman from Atlanta who had just claimed first place in the nation for speed climbing at the 2013 Sport Climbing Series Youth National Championships. And after a repeat performance at this year’s nationals, the now sophomore aerospace engineering major gets to add one more accolade to his resume: another national championship.
At the 2014 Sport Climbing Series from July 10 to 13, Pitzel climbed his way to first place for the third time in five years for speed climbing. He came in second place in 2011 and third in 2012 for the sport, which involves scaling a 10-meter wall.
Pitzel’s 4.8-second finish in the finals beat the second place finisher by .34 seconds.
“Being able to win two years in a row gives me more confidence in my mental game and is validation that my physical and mental training works and pays off,” he said.
It helps, Pitzel said, that his coach is Claudiu Vidulescu, an international champion rock climber and seven-time head coach of the U.S. climbing national team. The two are close, and it’s been mutually beneficial.
While Vidulescu helps Pitzel improve, Pitzel helps the team, Vidulescu wrote in an email. He added that Pitzel “single-handed built a strong speed team with Stone Summit.”
But it took him four years and many sacrifices to get to where he is today.
Pitzel’s family moved to Atlanta in 2010 so he could train at the Stone Summit Climbing and Fitness Center, one of the best facilities in the nation and work with Vidulescu.
Before he started climbing at age 11, Pitzel said he also used to play other sports, including soccer, football and baseball, but gave them all up when he started getting serious about rock climbing.
He instead put all of his energy into training. In college, he spends nearly five hours a day, four days a week training at Earth Treks, an indoor rock climbing center in Rockville, Pitzel said. He then adds another day doing cardio and swims with this university’s club team to stay in tip-top shape.
In the summer, he takes it up a notch and spends five days a week at the gym and one training at home, he said. And in the weeks leading up to nationals, his coach hosts a camp that involves about nine hours of training per day.
It’s a serious regimen, Pitzel said. He even drastically changes his diet.
“About a month before a big event, I cut out all desserts and eat healthy,” he said. “And the last two weeks beforehand, I really get into making sure everything is healthy: no sugars, the right amount of protein, all of that.”
His teammates recognize his hard work, too.
Jake Wilbur, who has known Pitzel for six years and finished in third place at nationals for speed climbing, called him a role model.
“Thomas deserves every last one of his victories,” Wilbur wrote in an email. “His passion for the sport is far beyond any other that I know. You should see him at practice — this dude never gives up.”
Now that nationals is over, Pitzel is looking to just relax and enjoy the rest of his summer. He said he’s not going to the international competition because it’s in New Caledonia, and the trip would be “absurdly expensive.”
And while he’s no longer eligible for the youth championships, Pitzel said don’t count him out of rock climbing just yet. He will continue with the sport; he just doesn’t know where yet.
He might train for the Pan-American Championships in November, and he’s hoping that this university will get involved with the new Collegiate Climbing Series.
The only thing for certain, though, is that he’ll continue climbing.
“I am taking classes in France and will likely stick around in Europe for a few weeks afterwards and compete in a few World Cups there,” he said.
