Help get South Africa's 'Queen of Speed Climbing' to the Paris Olympics!

Lester Kiewit speaks to Aniya Holder, a young speed climber who will be representing South Africa at the Paris Olympic Games in July this year.

Meet Aniya Holder who is also known as, South Africa's "Queen of Speed Climbing."

Holder has qualified for the Olympics after only starting speed climbing as a sport in October 2022 - yes, that's only one year and four months ago. Now the nickname makes sense, doesn't it?

Since then she's won multiple competitions and hopes to win a few world cups before her performance at the Paris Olympics. 

Holder's hope at the Paris Olympics is to represent South Africa well and beat existing records.

"South Africa is not as evolved as the rest of the world, we are quite far behind. If I can break the South African speed record, that would be amazing."

- Aniya Holder, Queen of Speed Climbing 

Holder says she juggles about four hours of daily training with her job at a climbing gym which means her trip to Olympics is self-funded, as some sporting events are not covered by most organisations in South Africa

Holder hopes to raise around 200-250 thousand Rands to get to Paris to cover training and living expenses and calls on fellow South Africans to help make her dream of becoming an Olympic champ true by donating to her Thundafund here.