Piper Kelly’s Coach

Piper Kelly is an American speed climber. Kelly has secured her place in the U.S. Olympic team for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. In her early years, while excelling in climbing, Kelly was involved in other sports as well - volleyball, soccer, track, and cross-country, which helped her athletic abilities. But at the age of 12, wall climbing became her sole focus, and she actively began practicing climbing at Irvington Preparatory Academy.

Kelly's first major competition was in 2016 - the International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC) World Youth Championships, where she ranked fifth in the Youth Divisions. In the following year, she moved up to the Junior level of the World Championships and finished in sixth place. Right after that, she had her first major victory and earned a gold medal at the Pan American Youth Championships in 2017. This success propelled her into the elite category of rock climbers.

Furthermore, at the 2023 Pan American Games, she achieved her personal best time of 7.53 seconds while securing a gold medal and booking her ticket to the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Who is Piper Kelly’s Coach?

Piper Kelly is turning heads as she moves into the Paris 2024 Olympics after beating fellow rival Emma Hunt. She is coached by Albert OK. Infamously known by his moniker “Professor OK”, he is a man of many talents. Once a talented 110m hurdler, Albert OK is also a nationally-ranked Guitar maestro and a chess coach.

Fascinated by speed climbing, he also pursued to become a nationally-ranked speed climbing expert. It led to his famous YouTube account, “Professor OK” which earned him millions of views.

Today, Albert is an independent coach mentoring 50 speed climbers around the world. Among them, two are Olympic-qualified athletes and current men’s world-record holders. Ok was a 110m hurdler during high school. Unfortunately, the career was ephemeral as he was pulled out of the program when he got a B grade in academics.

Albert’s Coaching Career

As an independent coach, Albert OK has an amazing coaching career. He has coached GB speed climbing athlete Mathew Hall. OK was greatly inspired by legends like Roman Krajnik (SLO), Takako Hoshi, etc. His unique style of coaching stems from absorbing the best from people in the game who were self-coached.

Impact of Albert’s Coaching on Kelly’s Career

Since 2022, under his guidance, Piper has been in the top 30 bracket on the IFSC World Cup circuit.

Image of Albert OK.