165. Kai Lightner, Pro Climber
Hurdle with Emily Abbate
iHeartPodcasts
4.9 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 28 June 2021
⏱️ 54 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Kai Lightner, is a professional climber — arguably one of the best in the world — from Fayetteville, North Carolina. Since first walking into the climbing gym at age 6, Kai has earned 12 national championship titles, but his story goes so much deeper than championships.
We talk about it all, from the why behind how he started in the sport, dealing with ADHD as a young kid, looking for an outlet to channel that energy, and how he feels being the only person of color in climbing. Kai talks about his relatively new nonprofit Climbing 4 Change, which aims to help with that by connecting underserved communities with individuals and organizations that seek to increase minority participation in rock climbing and the outdoor adventure industry.
He also gets super open and honest about a massive hurdle he spoke out about publicly last year, dealing with an eating disorder as a result of the pressure he felt to be the best, and how deciding to take time off of the sport to go to college helped him get in the right mindset.
WATCH
Kai’s Got Milk campaign film “The Wall” here!
RESOURCES
Contact the National Hotline for Eating Disorder Help by clicking here or calling (800) 931 2237 between 11 a.m. and 9 p.m. ET
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Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | In anything that you do, no matter how successful you are, no matter how far you get to |
| 0:04.4 | bring it or go with it, just remembering why you're there, enjoying the process, and truly loving |
| 0:10.7 | what you do is just so important. |
| 0:18.7 | Hey everyone, Emily Abadi here. You are listening to episode 165 of Hurtle. A wellness |
| 0:32.5 | focus podcast where I sit down with inspiring individuals to talk about big wins, tough moments, |
| 0:37.9 | and everything in between. On the show, you can expect vulnerability, motivation, and candid |
| 0:43.8 | discussions with everyone from top athletes and CEOs to aspiring entrepreneurs, |
| 0:49.1 | on what it really takes to follow your passions. My mission is simple, to inspire you to be your |
| 0:54.9 | best self, move with intention, and have some fun along the way. Today I am sitting down with Kai |
| 1:03.6 | Lightner. He's a professional climber, arguably one of the best in the world from Fightville, |
| 1:08.5 | North Carolina, and get this. He first walked into a climbing gym when he was six years old. |
| 1:16.7 | Today he's earned 12 national championship titles, and that's just the tip of the iceberg really. |
| 1:22.3 | We talk about it all from the why behind how he started in the sport, dealing with ADHD as a young |
| 1:29.1 | kid looking at for an outlet to channel that energy, to how he feels about being the only person |
| 1:34.8 | of color at his level, so to speak, in climbing. We talk about the importance of access in the sport, |
| 1:40.4 | and he talks to me about his relatively new nonprofit called Climbing for Change, which aims to help |
| 1:46.8 | with that by connecting underserved communities with individuals and organizations that seek to |
| 1:51.8 | increase minority participation in rock climbing in the outdoor adventure industry. He also gets super |
| 1:58.2 | open and honest about a massive hurdle he spoke out about publicly last year, dealing with an |
| 2:03.2 | eating disorder as a result of the pressure he felt to be the best. He says that taking time |
| 2:08.3 | off from the sport and going to college was a major game changer for him, helping him get his |
| 2:13.7 | mind right and reframe his relationship with food for the better. We connected on the heels of |
... |
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