Kai Lightner (born August 21, 1999) is an American professional competitive sport climber from
Fayetteville, North Carolina
Fayetteville () is a city in and the county seat of Cumberland County, North Carolina, United States. It is best known as the home of Fort Bragg, a major U.S. Army installation northwest of the city.
Fayetteville has received the All-America C ...
,
and an advocate for diversity in rock climbing.
Biography
When Lightner was six years old, he climbed a 50-foot flagpole in his hometown of Fayetteville, North Carolina. A woman passing on the street gave Lightner's mother the address of a local climbing gym. Four years later, Lightner won his first youth sport climbing national championship.
In 2014, Lightner earned the gold medal for his age category (14-15) at the Youth World Championships in New Caledonia, becoming the first Youth American Lead World Champion since 1995. In 2015, at the age of 15, he became the Open Lead Climbing National Champion in his first year of eligibility. In 2017, Lightner won Lead Open Nationals in Denver, Colorado. Overall, Lightner has earned 10 Youth National Championship titles and is a five-time Youth World Championship Medalist.
Lightner has become an advocate for diversity in rock climbing. In the summer of 2020, in the wake of the
George Floyd protests, Lightner founded a nonprofit calle
Climbing for ChangeC4C). The goal of C4C is to provide opportunities for people of color both in climbing gyms and outside. In a 2020 article in
Climbing Magazine
''Climbing'' is a major US-based rock climbing magazine first published in 1970. In 2007, it was bought by Skram Media, the publisher of ''Urban Climber Magazine''. The headquarters of the magazine is in Boulder, Colorado. It is published nine t ...
, Lightner proposed that through his own media exposure, climbing might evolve to be a more inclusive activity, noting that in Black and white communities alike, climbing is perceived as "a white sport."
In 2016 Lightner was featured alongside climber
Ashima Shiraishi in the
Reel Rock 11 film ''Young Guns''.
In 2020, Lightner was enrolled at
Babson College
Babson College is a private business school in Wellesley, Massachusetts. Established in 1919, its central focus is on entrepreneurship education. It was founded by Roger W. Babson as an all-male business institute, but became coeducational i ...
.
Outdoor climbing highlights
* ''Era Vella'' (5.14c/d) in Margalef, Spain
* ''Lucifer'' (5.14c) and ''Southern Smoke'' (5.14c) in the Red River Gorge
References
External links
American rock climbers
People from Fayetteville, North Carolina
Living people
1999 births
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