Tori Allen, world champion rock climber, shared her exciting story with Whitefield fourth graders this week during their P.E. class. Allen, who is the daughter of Whitefield Education Technology Specialist Shawntell Allen, was four years old when she moved with her parents to Benin, a small country in Africa, while they were working in a Christian mission. While she was there, Allen began climbing trees and soon adopted a mona monkey named Georgie, who became her climbing buddy. She moved back to the United States, started climbing indoor rock walls and quickly became one of the top ranked climbers in the United States.
At 13, Tori Allen became the youngest person to climb a route with a 5.13a (out of a 5.15a) degree of difficulty on a first try. At 14, she won a gold medal in climbing at the Gorge Games. She also won the 2002 Speed Climbing Championship at the ESPN X-Games, and became the youngest woman to ever become an X-Games champion.
Allen encouraged the fourth graders to set goals for themselves academically, physically, and spiritually. She explained that she didn’t become a world class climber overnight, but set small goals for herself and accomplished them one by one.
“Keep your mind focused on the goal in front of you and you will eventually reach your dream,” she said.
Tale a look at Tori winning the X-games here.