Following a successful 2023 campaign, capped off by the qualification to the Olympic Games Paris 2024, US Speed climber Emma Hunt has been nominated as the Sport Climbing representative in the race for The World Games Athlete of the Year award.

At last year’s IFSC World Championships Bern 2023, Hunt won silver in the women’s Speed event, securing her ticket to the upcoming Paris Olympics with her first-ever Championships medal.

The winner of the women’s Speed event at The World Games Birmingham 2022 also took silver at the IFSC World Cup in Villars, Switzerland, last July, and finished in second place at the Pan American Games Santiago 2023 – held in Chile in October.

Across the entire 2023 season, 20-year-old Hunt lowered her personal best four times, starting with 6.82 at the second World Cup of the season in Seoul, South Korea, then setting 6.79 one week later in Jakarta, Indonesia. The US specialist proceeded to set another PB in Villars – 6.68 – and finally put the icing on her cake in Bern, Switzerland, with 6.67.

Voting for The World Games Athlete of the Year 2023 opens tomorrow, Wednesday 10 January at 13:00 (UTC+1:00): points will be assigned to two candidates, with two points going to the first selected nominee, and one point going to the second one. Each user will be able to cast a vote once every 24 hours. Starting on Monday, 22 January, only the 10 most voted athletes will continue the race, with their scores being brought back to zero.

The World Games Athlete of the Year award has been in place since 2013 and has been presented to two Sport Climbing athletes in the past – Adam Ondra of the Czech Republic in 2014, and Reza Alipour Shenzandifard of Iran in 2017 – while the list of previously nominated athletes includes Tokyo 2020 gold and silver medallists Janja Garnbret of Slovenia, and Nonaka Miho of Japan.

To vote for Emma Hunt in The World Games Athlete of the Year poll click here.