Learning to cope with the price of success
Despite winning the youth world title a year prior – becoming the first climber from New Zealand to win a medal, let alone a world title, at any level of international competition – David was still blind sided by his success at Paris 2024.
“Two years of my life was spent just to qualify,” he discloses. “Initially, it wasn’t even the goal to go to Paris – the goal was always LA – but then, a year in, we kind of realised the progression was enough, and that Paris 2024 was an option.”
He found it hard to see past what was arguably the most important competition in his young career.
“I didn’t really have a plan in terms of what’s next. I was already pretty stoked with what I’d achieved, so I wasn’t really thinking much past that.
“I hadn’t experienced that same lead in, [where] every comp I was getting a personal best,” he explained, comparing his times between 2024 and 2025.
“That was still my mindset from the year before and my successes, so that was something I was just kind of navigating…and it’s real hard.”
It wasn’t long before he found himself sympathising with Paris 2024 Boulder and Lead champion Toby Roberts, who opened up about his own struggles with competition mentality and diminishing results in a viral social post earlier this season.
“It’s such a crazy thing, coming from the Olympics and then doing World Cups again, because they feel like such a little, minor event. I don’t feel like they’re that important anymore. It’s crazy.”
Using the same philosophy that guided him to both a youth world title and an Oceania record, David is hoping to redisover his best form.
“I think this is real important, especially when you’re new to it, but for the mental state, you are racing yourself,” he contends.
“Even when I had that race against Reza Alipour [at Paris 2024] to make finals, it was still me racing myself, because I really wanted to get a personal best.”
“I think if my mental state was the other way around, like I was thinking about, ‘I had to win this race and I had to beat him to progress,’ it would have been a different outcome.”