On July 8, nine-year-old Veronica Aimee Chik became the youngest person ever to send 5.14b (8c) with her ascent of Fish Eye in Oliana, Spain. She dethroned the previous record holder, French climber Théo Blass, by one year.
“I believe in myself! I can top the route!” Chik repeated to herself as she worked the sustained overhanging wall. More than the crux moves themselves, the route’s length of 50 meters (164 feet)—her longest climb to date—proved the biggest challenge. “Endurance was a critical issue for me,” she says. “During my trials, my coaches and I realized that I would be exhausted after climbing 35 to 40 meters.” Time management became a top priority as she tried to limit resting to avoid burning out.
Originally set by Chris Sharma in 2009, Fish Eye also required Chik to make up her own beta, given her 4’7” height, wingspan, and gripping power, which varied dramatically from previous ascensionists like Sharma, Janja Garnbret, and Monique Forestier. “She had to be creative,” her father Alan Chik told Climbing. “There are some moves that were quite tricky and difficult.”
In Spain, the Chik family enlisted the help of two coaches—Toni Arbones and David Gambús—to belay and provide guidance. To practice her self-styled beta, her coaches had Chik repeat the moves four or five times per burn to commit each sequence to memory. All in all, she spent 14 days practicing the route, with one or two burns each day, before her successful redpoint.
When she arrived in Spain in June, Chik didn’t have her sights set on a specific route. “She tried nine routes in five days, including Fish Eye,” her father says. “We believed that Fish Eye seemed to be the one Veronica could possibly send due to her height and arm span.”
Each day, before hopping on Fish Eye, Chik warmed up with about an hour of stretching. Then, according to her dad, she would tell herself to be “calm, focused, and try her best” before tying in. During her rest time, Chik watched videos her father had recorded of her trying the route. While watching this footage, she observed that the shorter her rest times, the better her performance. She ended up topped out in 25 minutes, five minutes faster than her coaches had predicted. As she was sending, Arbones, one of her coaches, commented on how effortless she looked cruising up Fish Eye. “She is literally walking up the wall!” Arbones cried.
In October 2024, Chik told the South China Morning Post that she was overcoming a fear of falling. But when Climbing asked her if she struggled with this fear on Fish Eye, she responded, “Not at all. I am already used to it, so I have no fear of falling anymore.” Chik made it clear that she feels pretty fearless while sport climbing at the moment. “I fear no challenges, no heights, and no falls,” she told Climbing. “Nothing on this earth can deter my progress.” Needless to say, we believe her.
After sending Fish Eye and celebrating with a dinner with her dad, coaches, and a couple friends who watched her send, she spent a few more days trying hard routes in Spain. She has a climbing trip planned to the Red River Gorge with her dad later this summer, then she’s headed back to Hong Kong for school in fall. She prefers in-person schooling over homeschooling because she really likes her classmates. So her parents plan out her training schedule and climbing trips around her academics.
Although Chik’s dad is not a climber, he is now learning to belay so he can support her on future climbs. Chik got her first introduction to climbing thanks to her godfather, who runs six climbing gyms in Hong Kong. “I started to take climbing lessons when I was five-and-a-half years old,” she says. “I love this sport so much, so I’ve stuck with it ever since.”
While her parents still don’t climb—nor does her 13-year-old brother—her little sister happens to be a budding climber. According to Veronica, her three-and-a-half-year-old sister can lap their gym’s 30-foot autobelay six times in under 20 minutes. “She told me she likes climbing very much,” Veronica says. “I’m sure she is going to be a very good climber in the future.”
Already, Chik says she is “ready for the next challenge”: an 8c+ (5.14c) route. Perhaps in Spain, over Christmas, when her father plans to take her back to Oliana. Eventually, she dreams of competing in the Boulder and Lead disciplines in the Olympics. But she won’t be old enough for the 2028 Games—she’ll have to wait until the 2032 Summer Games in Brisbane, Australia, to conquer that particular dream.
Chik is excited to take on more competitive climbing in China this year, along with trips to the Red River Gorge and back to Spain. (Photo: Toni Mas Buchaca / Siurana Today)
Watch Chik send ‘Fish Eye’ in this short film by Spanish filmmaker César Garcia: