When we found out that rock climbing was added to the Olympics back in Tokyo, our first thought was: awesome! The snow, the risk, the Yetis! Being Olympic historians we pretend to be, we hark back to earlier games, when medals were given out for mountaineering. Heck, we even profiled Hettie Dyhrenfurth of Switzerland, who was awarded gold in 1936.

Alas, as it turns out, modern rock climbing is not exactly the same. There are no mountains; these Olympians climb... walls, much like you see in your local rec center. Not as exciting, we know.

Climbing is back in the Paris Olympics, and Jesse Grupper was considered a medal contender before being defeated by the French wall. In his day job, this Jew from Montclair, New Jersey is a Engineering Research Fellow in the Harvard Biodesign Lab. When not researching engineering, he is a two-time national rock climbing champion.

As we mentioned in the Dyhrenfurth profile, the Olympics stopped giving out mountaineering medals because it was deemed too dangerous. This makes a lot of sense as far as safety is concerned...

But you're not gonna meet a Yeti in your local rec center, are you? (Hairy climbing instructors don't count.)