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Clinging with calloused fingers onto a chalk-streaked wall, 10-year-old Veronica Aimee Chik extends a hand to grab a jagged piece of stone. She positions her foot on a barely visible slab, straightening her leg and lifting herself by a few inches.
Nearly 50 metres separate her from the ground, where her coach scrutinises her every movement. Meticulously, she eases her nylon rope – her lifeline – into a metal clip on the rough stone surface and continues climbing, her success hingeing on every shift of a limb, until she ascends to the top.
As a three-year-old, Veronica was already swinging her way across the monkey bars. At the age of five, she took her first lesson at a climbing gym in Hong Kong and instantly became enamoured with the sport.
“It can help you use your mind,” she said, adding that climbing requires creativity to help decide the best techniques for each climb.
She won her first local climbing competition at the age of six. Her mother, Vivian Wan, remembered feeling surprised as Veronica continued ranking first in subsequent competitions.
“When [Veronica] was around seven, she said she wanted to be an Olympian. And I was like, ‘Are you serious?’ Because in our family, we never had an athlete before. So we didn’t know what to do,” Wan said.
Veronica is still too young to compete in the Olympics, which doesn’t allow competitors under the age of 16. Still, she has already broken a world record by becoming the youngest person to finish an 8c climb, a grade notoriously difficult even for seasoned climbers.
New challenges
When Veronica was seven, a coach from Beijing, who was part of the Chinese national team, recognised her potential and took her in as a student.
Her skills developed quickly in the first few weeks of training, but she was under constant, gruelling pressure. Once she made friends on the team, she began to feel a sense of belonging, which helped her decide to stay.
Veronica explained a few of the techniques she picked up during training: “Some holds are very small,” she said. “If you don’t train, it’s very hard to grab [them], and you will slip.”
Climbers must also pay attention to their feet: “If you don’t have much footwork ... you’ll definitely fall very easily,” she explained.
Veronica’s first outdoor climbing session was in January 2024, when she went to a climbing festival in Yangshuo.
“It was only my first time going for a national competition,” she said.
She was up against other athletes aged eight to 10 who had been climbing outdoors for years. But to everyone’s astonishment, she placed second among her peers.
Importance of rest
For the next four months, Veronica and her father commuted four hours to Yangshuo every weekend to continue her training.
Her coach wanted her to complete an 8b+ climb, a level highly challenging even for seasoned climbers.
Veronica struggled with this challenge for months, and her parents decided that she needed a break. They took her to the 2024 Paris Olympics, where she met her climbing hero, Slovenian Olympic medallist Janja Garnbret.
When Veronica returned to training in September 2024, she completed the climb and set China’s record for the youngest climber of an 8b+ route.
She soon set her sights on her next big goal, this time in Europe. After meeting a coach in Spain, they decided she would tackle the 8c Fish Eye route at Oliana. Only 21 ascents have been recorded on this route.
In July 2025, after two weeks of intense effort, she became the youngest person in history to complete an 8c climb.
Veronica’s approach to conquering difficult routes is simple: “Just keep going ... make things enjoyable,” she said.
Veronica trains five days a week, and up to eight hours a day on weekends. She also keeps up with her classes as a student at ESF Renaissance College. Despite her busy schedule, she hasn’t lost her passion for the sport.
Veronica advised other young climbers to stay focused on their goals, saying, “Follow your dreams ... Never give up.”
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