Immediately after falling from the lead climbing wall in Paris on Thursday morning, Brooke Raboutou looked into the camera and smiled broadly.

The Boulder native and Fairview graduate, who was in third place after the first bouldering round of Olympic sport climbing, nearly reached the hold that would have earned her second place in the finals, just feet from the summit.

She missed by a whisker, but then lost her footing and slid down, having to settle for third place ahead of Saturday’s final.

The lead climbing competition includes a series of obstacles and rope clamps, and athletes have six minutes to systematically plan their route to the summit. This year, they must finish in the top eight of the opening rounds in both bouldering and lead climbing to qualify for the final.

Raboutou goes into the final with a total score of 155.8, with 83.7 points in bouldering and 72.1 points in the lead, putting her within striking distance of a silver medal. Reigning gold medalist, Slovenia’s Janja Garnbret, left the rest of the field behind with 195.7 points, followed by Austrian Jessica Pilz with 156.9.

Three years ago, during the COVID-postponed 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Raboutou left the inaugural Olympic sport climbing competition in fifth place in the combined competition, which included bouldering, lead climbing and speed climbing. This year, women’s speed climbing is a separate event.

She has a good chance of a medal on Saturday when she begins her climb at 2:15 a.m. mountain time. Her colleague Natalia Grossman, also of Fairview, finished her run in Paris in 11th place (108.3), after scoring just 39.1 points while leading.