Leonardo Gontero Speed climbing

Speed, the video of Italian speed climber Leonardo Gontero and his training sessions to climb faster and faster still.

How does a sprinter train for speed climbing? And what is speed measured in... height? Someone who knows the answers to these questions is Leonardo Gontero. Born in Susa in 1993, he started climbing when he was 4. Now, at 19 years of age, he is one of Italy's biggest hopes; he currently holds the Italian speed record, in 2009 he was crowned Junior category A World Champion, while in 2010 he won the Italian Speed Cup.

In this video Leonardo introduces himself but above all he shows what it takes to train and race up the hand and footholds up the vertical track. All those who think it's "easy" to sprint like he does... just give it a go ;-)