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Jesse Grupper

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Jesse Grupper
2019 Sport & Speed Open National final
Personal information
Born (1997-01-06) January 6, 1997 (age 27)
New York City, New York, U.S.
Education
Height180 cm (5 ft 11 in)
WebsiteJesse Grupper
Climbing career
Type of climber
Ape index+2
Highest grade
Medal record
Men's competition climbing
Representing  United States
World Cup
Gold medal – first place 2022 Briançon Lead
Gold medal – first place 2022 Edinburgh Lead
Silver medal – second place 2022 Villars Lead
Bronze medal – third place 2022 Innsbruck Lead
Pan American Games
Gold medal – first place 2023 Santiago Bouldering & Lead

Jesse Grupper (born January 6, 1997) is an American Olympic rock climber who specializes in competition climbing. In 2022, Grupper came in third overall in the 2022 IFSC Climbing World Cup in the competition lead climbing discipline. He earned the gold medal in the 2023 Pan American Championships in the combined boulder and lead climbing discipline. Grupper is competing for the United States at the 2024 Paris Olympics in Men's combined sport climbing on August 5, 7, and 9, 2024.

Early life

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Grupper was born on January 6, 1997, in New York City[1] to Jonathan and Cathy Grupper, and his hometown is Upper Montclair, New Jersey.[2][3][4] He is Jewish, and he and his family belong to Montclair's Reconstructionist Bnai Keshet synagogue, where Grupper commemorated his bar mitzvah.[5] Ruth and Edward Grupper, his grandparents, assisted in founding the Rockland County, New York, New City Jewish Center Conservative synagogue.[5]

He was diagnosed as a teenager with ulcerative colitis, an incurable inflammatory bowel disease; Grupper receives a medical infusion for the condition every eight weeks, and follows a gluten-free diet.[6][7][5] In January 2021, he was in the hospital for a week after his medication stopped working, and he had a colitis flare-up; his father said that the incident brought Grupper to "death's door".[8] He has been a longtime volunteer coach at a gym for a program helping kids who have disabilities.[9]

Grupper attended Montclair High School.[10] He graduated in 2015.[11]

He then attended the Tufts University School of Engineering, from which Grupper graduated with a B.S. in mechanical engineering in 2019.[9] He was a member of the university's climbing team, and started the Biomechanics Club to create devices to help people with disabilities.[9][12] As a sophomore he created a prosthetic for a teenage hockey player who had a cleft hand, which helped him both hit the hockey puck with greater power, and perform daily tasks such as brushing his teeth.[7]

After graduating, Grupper worked on human performance for a period of time at the Boston, Massachusetts, bio-design firm Harvard Biodesign Lab, developing exoskeletons for stroke victims to restore their movement. He is a research fellow at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.[13][9][14]

Grupper lives in Salt Lake City, Utah, where he also trains.[3] He is 5 feet 11 inches (180 cm) tall.[15]

Career

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Early years

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Grupper began climbing when he was six years old, when his parents enrolled him in a rock climbing class in the indoor New Jersey Rock Gym in Fairfield, New Jersey, as his older sister Maddy began taking climbing lessons.[3][15][4][16] Three years later, he began competing.[17] He specializes in lead climbing, which consists of climbing a wall as high as one can in a six-minute timeframe, while using some equipment.[4] Randi Goldberg is his longtime coach.[6]

In 2008, when he was 11 years old, he won the USA Climbing Youth Bouldering Nationals.[7] In 2014, Grupper won the "Youth A" USA Climbing's 2014 Sport Climbing Series Youth National Championships, in Atlanta, Georgia.[10] In 2015, he competed in the IFSC Climbing World Youth Championships in Arco, Italy, and won the silver medal, and in 2018 he won the Collegiate Sport National Championships in Houston, Texas.[7] He won the gold medal in the 2019 USA Climbing Sport Open Nationals.[8]

2022–present

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In 2022, Grupper took the bronze medal in the 2022 IFSC Climbing World Cup in the overall competition lead climbing discipline,[18] with two stage wins, one second, and one third through the seven international stages of the 2022 World Cup.[19]

He took the gold medal in the 2023 Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile, in the combined boulder and lead climbing discipline, thus qualifying for the 2024 Olympics.[3][20][21]

In April 2024 Grupper was the #1 ranked United States men's lead climber, and ranked #3 in boulder and lead.[16] At that point, he had been a member of the United States youth team ten times, and a member of the United States open team five times.[16]

2024 Paris Olympics

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Grupper is competing for the United States at the 2024 Paris Olympics, which is the second Olympic competition in sport climbing, in Men's combined sport climbing at the Le Bourget Sport Climbing Venue in Le Bourget in the Seine-Saint-Denis suburb of Paris on August 5, 7 and 9, 2024.[17][14]

World Cup

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Rankings

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Discipline 2022
Lead 3

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Grupper Jesse". Olympics.com. Retrieved August 5, 2024.
  2. ^ "Jesse Grupper". Weebly. Retrieved August 6, 2024.
  3. ^ a b c d Charlotte Ortzian (May 31, 2024). "To the Top: Montclair Climber Jesse Grupper Headed to Paris Olympics," Montclair Local.
  4. ^ a b c Priya Desai (July 19, 2024). "Meet some of the New Yorkers who are competing in the Paris Olympics," Gothamist.
  5. ^ a b c Jacob Gurvis (July 10, 2024). "Claire Weinstein, Jessica Fox and 16 other Jewish athletes to watch in the 2024 Paris Olympics," JTA.
  6. ^ a b Pamela Weber-Leaf (June 19, 2024). "How Montclair's Jesse Grupper Climbed His Way to the 2024 Olympics," New Jersey Monthly.
  7. ^ a b c d Ari Schneider (October 16, 2019). "Helping Hands: How Jesse Grupper Went From Sending Hard to Helping Others," Climbing.
  8. ^ a b Greg Hyatt (July 10, 2024). "Climber overcame a chronic health condition that left him on 'death's door' en route to Paris Olympics," NBC News.
  9. ^ a b c d Mike Gavin (July 10, 2024). "How Team USA's Jesse Grupper helps climbers with disabilities reach new heights," NBC New York.
  10. ^ a b "Montclair High student tops field at USA Climbing's 2014 Sport Climbing Series," The Montclair Times, July 27, 2014.
  11. ^ Pamela Weber-Leaf (July 2024). "Rock Star," New Jersey Monthly.
  12. ^ "A Jumbo Presence at the Paris Games". Tufts Now. July 10, 2024. Retrieved July 15, 2024.
  13. ^ Marc Chalufour (January 31, 2022). "Jesse Grupper Reaches Peak of Competitive Climbing," Tufts Now.
  14. ^ a b "What Sport Climber Jesse Grupper Is Bringing to the Paris Olympics," Wired, July 23, 2024.
  15. ^ a b Bob Reinert (May 11, 2023). "Jesse Grupper Looks To Climb Higher Up The World Rankings After Breakout Season," Team USA.
  16. ^ a b c Annie Fast (April 23, 2024). "Six things you didn't know about Team USA sport climber Jesse Grupper," Olympics.com.
  17. ^ a b "Look for these NJ athletes at the Paris Olympics," New Jersey 101.5.
  18. ^ Pardy, Aaron (November 1, 2022). "A Recap of the 2022 IFSC Climbing World Cup Season". gripped.com. Retrieved August 5, 2024.
  19. ^ "Jesse Grupper". ifsc.results.info. Retrieved August 5, 2024.
  20. ^ Culbertson, Mary (October 24, 2023). "SLC climber qualifies for Paris Olympics". KSLTV.com. Retrieved November 1, 2023.
  21. ^ Pardy, Aaron (October 24, 2023). "Jesse Grupper Is Going to the Olympics". Gripped Magazine. Retrieved November 1, 2023.
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