Ola Kalucka recalls sitting at breakfast with her twin sister Natalia on the morning of the final Olympic qualification round for speed climbing last month. Both had amassed enough points to make the Polish team in Paris, but only one could.
“It was tough because I knew I had to compete against my sister,” Ola remembered. “We were in tears, fully aware that it would be a bittersweet evening for us.” Despite world champion Natalia being ahead by five points that morning in Budapest, Ola finished ahead and secured the Olympic spot.
Aleksandra Miroslaw, who placed fourth at the Tokyo Games, secured the first Olympic ticket for the Polish speed climbing team by winning the initial qualifying event in Rome last September.
Since then, the 22-year-old Kalucka twins had been battling to determine which, if either, would claim the second spot. Accustomed to such sibling rivalry, each had previously won a Speed World Cup, with Natalia taking the title from her sister last year. Although Natalia finished fifth in Hungary, there were no remaining Polish slots for Paris.
“It’s a bit brutal, but sports can be that way sometimes,” Ola remarked, partly blaming herself for losing out to Miroslaw in the final round in Rome. Had she secured the first Olympic spot, it would have left a chance for her sister to pursue the second.
“I was in the lead, but I made a mistake on the upper part of the wall, and I don’t like to think about what might have happened if I hadn’t,” she reflected. “It was tough. After that competition, I blamed myself for not securing the ticket for our family… but dwelling on it negatively doesn’t help.”
Ola, whose full first name is also Aleksandra, emphasized that Miroslaw, who set a new world record of 6.24 seconds in the Rome qualifier, truly deserved her place at the Paris Games this summer.
Climbing debuted at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, but this will be the first time the sport will be separated into distinct events: bouldering combined with lead, and speed, where athletes race up a 15-meter wall.
“I’ve been striving for this for two years,” Ola said, reflecting on her journey to the Games, which included recovering from a broken leg last year. “I had two chances to qualify last year, but I wasn’t present. This time, I focused on each hold and each run.”
Overcome with emotion, Ola covered her face with her hands after hitting the buzzer to win the Budapest final, dangling from the wall on the safety harness. “It felt like my childhood dream came true. It was a rollercoaster of emotions. I was thrilled and happy, yet at the same time, I felt sadness.”
Born prematurely on Christmas Day 2001, the twin sisters have defied doctors’ expectations of physical limitations. “Since childhood, we’ve been blind in one eye, with only 10% vision,” Natalia revealed in an interview with Przegląd Sportowy in 2021.
“I don’t know what normal sight is like,” Natalia added. “I can’t see with my left eye, and Ola can’t see with her right. Interestingly, I’m left-handed, and my sister is right-handed.”
Though Natalia won’t be competing, she’ll be in Paris to support her twin, and Ola dreams of a day when they can both compete on the sport’s grandest stage, perhaps at the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028.
“We do everything together, so my sister will definitely be in Paris with me,” Ola affirmed. “Maybe one day we’ll compete against each other in the big final. Who knows? That’s my dream.”
