Tom O'Halloran

Fast Facts

Sport: Sport Climbing
Event: Lead, Bouldering and Speed
Olympic History: Tokyo 2020
Highlights: Making the Tokyo 2020 Australian Olympic Team. National Champion in 2017 & 2019, first Australian to climb a grade 35
Club: Blackheath Bouldering Club
Year Born: 1992
State Born: QLD

About Tom

Tom O’Halloran began his rock-climbing journey in 2004 at the age of 12, after his parents enrolled him into the local climbing gym. Tom quickly fell in love with the sport and the many challenges it presented. 

Tom excelled quickly in the sport and in 2007 represented Australia at the World Youth Championships where he placed 12th in the world. 

While Tom was born and raised in Brisbane, he made the move to the Blue Mountains in NSW in 2011 to pursue his passion for climbing. The Blue Mountains is considered to be Australia’s best sport climbing location with numerous climbs on offer, and so it was the perfect place to call home. 

Sport Climbing made its debut at the 2020 Olympic Games, featuring three disciplines; Lead, Bouldering and Speed Climbing. While Tom is typically an outdoor climber, he switched his focus to indoor climbing once the opportunity to don the green and gold at Tokyo 2020 presented itself.

The 28-year-old has numerous accolades under his belt, including being a three-time NSW State Champion, a two-time National Champion and being the first Australian to climb a grade 35 – an achievement he considers to be a career highlight. In addition, he has travelled to many countries around the world to complete climbs including New Zealand, Ecuador, Thailand, China, South Africa, Italy and France. 

The Tokyo 2020 Games were not the first time O’Halloran has graced our television screens, having previously been a contestant on Channel Nine’s Australia Ninja Warrior. Competing in two seasons of the show in 2017 and 2018, Tom progressed through to the grand final on both occasions. 

While the COVID-19 pandemic threw a curveball on preparation for the Tokyo Games, postponing the Olympic qualifying event to December 2020, it certainly did not affect Tom come competition day. 

Tom competed brilliantly over the tough two days of competition at the IFSC Oceania Championships, walking away with the Gold medal and Olympic quota spot for Tokyo 2020. Tom made his Olympic debut at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games where he competed in all three disciplines of Sport Climbing. 

 Competing in the qualifying stage, Tom would first compete in the Speed discipline of the competition. He would manage a time of 7.34 placing him in the 12th overall position. However, following the Bouldering and Lead portion of the event O'Halloran would fail to qualifying for the finals of the competition.