After Brooke Raboutou fell off of the lead wall and began her walk away from it early Saturday, she buried her face in her hands and broke into tears. No matter what was in store for the last two sport climbers, Raboutou would end her run in Paris with an Olympic medal.

The Boulder native and Fairview graduate then ran to hug Slovenia’s Janja Garnbret, the final athlete to ascend the wall, after Garnbret surpassed her — by just three handholds — to claim the gold medal. The silver that Raboutou won, the first sport climbing medal in Team USA history, happened just according to plan.

“We have an incredible friendship where we both want each other to do our best. So that’s what happened today, and that feels really good to share that with somebody,” Raboutou, 23, told USA Today of her friendship with Garnbret. “To share that connection as both a friend and an idol is incredible. I look up to her so much, and I’m so grateful for the support she’s given me as well.”

Garnbret told USA Today that she and Raboutou promised each other they’d stand on the podium together. The sport’s debut in Tokyo, three years ago, didn’t go as planned, however, as Raboutou finished fifth thanks to an early slip on the lead wall.

Raboutou’s performance in the opening boulder round of Saturday’s finals, though, put her in a prime position to medal. She cleared three out of four problems, reaching the top handholds to garner 84.0 points, trailing just 0.4 points behind Garnbret, the gold medalist in Tokyo in 2021.

No climber managed to solve that fourth problem. Raboutou held a commanding lead over Australia’s Oceania Mackenzie (59.7) going into the final portion of the event.Bouldering involves four 4-meter walls littered with a series of obstacles. Athletes have a few minutes to take several attempts to try to top out on each of them. In lead, athletes must climb as high as they can on a 15-meter wall defined by its own challenges and a series of rope clips. They have six minutes and a single attempt to chart their paths. Raboutou ensured she wouldn’t suffer the same lead fate that she did in Tokyo.

She began her climb smoothly and quickly, and reached the 60-point mark — which she needed to hit to take first place — with relative ease. She fell off not too far above that, but the damage to the rest of the field had been done.

Only two climbers remained after her, meaning she guaranteed herself a spot on the podium. Garnbret won the competition with a 168.5, followed by Raboutou (156.0) and Austria’s Jessica Pilz (147.4). Raboutou, the daughter of former climbing world cup champions Didier Raboutou and Robyn Erbesfield-Raboutou, began climbing at age 1. At age 11, she became the youngest person in the world to climb at the expert level, 5.14b.

Naturally, she was the first American to ever qualify for an Olympic Games. Last year, she won the bronze in bouldering at the world championships.