Bassa Mawem

Bassa Mawem is a retired French professional speed climber, born on 9 November 1984, who specialised in competition climbing. He won the overall title in the speed climbing event at the IFSC Climbing World Cup in 2018 and again in 2019. At the 2020 Summer Olympics, on 3 August 2021, he set the first Olympic record in speed climbing, 5.45 seconds, during the qualification round, but a bicep injury kept him out of the final. He qualified for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris as well, where he won his elimination round race against Ukraine's Yaroslav Tkach by 0.01 seconds, then lost in the quarterfinals to Veddriq Leonardo of Indonesia, the eventual gold medalist, and ended in seventh place. He retired from the sport after those Games. His younger brother Mickael is also a professional climber.