Elite climber Falconer chasing 2028 Olympic dreamImage source, Richard FalconerImage caption, Mary Falconer is the 2025 Scottish Bouldering Champion and Irish National Lead ChampionByCeri Coleman-PhillipsBBC Sport WalesPublished15 minutes agoMary Falconer is your typical shy teenager and clearly uncomfortable in front of a camera.But put her on a boulder wall, like the one we find ourselves on at Flashpoint Swansea, and the 15-year-old is transformed.Watching her confidently glide up the holds – and seemingly defy physics – it is hard to think this elite athlete was once what her father Richard describes as the “little girl who refused to go for a walk”.And perhaps what is even more remarkable, Falconer only took up bouldering three years ago as a way to cope with the death of her mother Anca to a rare cancer.
“It’s helped me a lot mentally because you can put all your emotions into the wall and into your training,” she reported.
