Para climber Brian Zarzuela chases a "crazy dream" with two years to go until LA28
US Para climber Brian Zarzuela shares his preparations for the LA28 Paralympic Games and how the Games have given him a “big goal to go for that is different from anything else I’ve had in the past”. 17 Aug 2026
Five years ago, competing at a home Paralympic Games felt like a “crazy dream” for US Para climbing athlete Brian Zarzuela. Now, with two years to go until LA28, he is preparing to compete at the Games for the first time.
The LA28 Paralympic Games will take place from 15 to 27 August 2028, featuring 560 medal events across 23 Para sports. Para climbing will feature on the sport programme for the first time, with up to 80 athletes competing at Long Beach Climbing Theater.
“It feels really special knowing that we’re going to get to compete on home soil. Having the first Para climbing (events at the Games) here in the US is more than I could have wished for,” he said.
“It’s cool to feel like you’re doing something that otherwise felt impossible.”
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Dreaming of a Paralympic debut
LA28 will be the first time the United States has hosted a summer Paralympic Games since Atlanta 1996. There will be eight medal events in Para climbing: men’s B1 lead, men’s RP1 lead, men’s AU2 lead, men’s AL2 lead, women’s B2 lead, women’s RP1 lead, women’s AU2 lead, and women’s AL2 lead.
With two years to go, preparations for the Games are well underway and excitement is building in Los Angeles, California. In Para climbing, a key milestone on the road to LA28 will be the 2027 IFSC Climbing and Para Climbing World Championships in Brno, Czechia, in August 2027.
Zarzuela, who was born a year after Atlanta 1996, says his preparations have been going well, adding that the Paralympics have given him a “big goal to go for that is different from anything else I’ve had in the past”.
“The biggest thing that changed in finding out about LA28 with my training and my competition mindset was the fact that your goal was different,” he said.
“You become a lot more dialed in and you have this drive that you otherwise didn’t have. It’s been really cool and it has lit a new fire under me in climbing that I didn’t know I had.”
There are no limits
Born with one hand, Zarzuela said his childhood was “obviously difficult in the ways you expected it to be”. He often felt different from his peers and experienced bullying while growing up in New York.
“But sport was a great outlet for me and a great way to get comfortable with having one hand,” he said. He played a variety of sports, including baseball, basketball, football and athletics.
Zarzuela tried climbing for the first time on his birthday and he was drawn because it was unlike any sport he had tried before. Since he did not know any climbers competing at a high level with one hand, he enjoyed developing his own approach to the sport.
“It was different from anything else that I had done, because it required me to adapt quickly to having one hand, whereas other sports, there’s already other athletes that I could look up to.
“I was learning a lot as I went on, which was really cool. It gave me an opportunity to get better acclimated with what I could physically do, and also where I could physically get better.”
Zarzuela made his international debut in 2019 after he was approached by Para athletes who introduced him to the Para climbing circuit. Para climbing was added to the LA28 Paralympic programme in 2024.
He still remembers where he was when he learned the sport would be staged at LA28.
“I remember getting the call that Para climbing was going to be in LA. I called my girlfriend, I called my family, and I just kept saying, ‘Oh my god, it’s happening. We’re going to the Paralympics.’”
Over the years, the sport has helped change the way Zarzuela viewed his own potential. While he has a shorter wingspan than many competitors, he has adapted by developing a more dynamic and explosive style of climbing.
“You’re only limited by what you think you can’t do,” he said. “What I like the most about Para climbing is that it feels very freeing. You’re not really limited on being a Para athlete.
“It just depends on how much you want to push yourself.”
Counting down to LA28
In the summer of 2028, Zarzuela is hoping to experience every aspect of the Games, from the Opening Ceremony at the Stadium in Inglewood to staying in the Paralympic Village alongside athletes from around the world.
“The Paralympics are more than just the competition,” he said. “I’m so excited to be part of the Athletes’ Village. That’s something that you hear about as an athlete, but something you never get to experience unless you’re there.
“I think that’s when it’ll really hit me, like ‘Oh my god, I’m here at the Paralympics.’”
As the countdown to LA28 continues, he hopes to see excitement building in the United States and beyond.
“People should watch LA28 because it’ll be an opportunity to see the best athletes in the world do what they’ve been proving they can do on the biggest stage in the world,” Zarzuela said.
Two years out from the Paralympics, Zarzuela is no longer wondering whether competing at the Games is possible. He is preparing to make his Paralympic debut in front of a home crowd.
“Now you want to be the best climber in the world. If you want to go to LA and if you want to win at LA, you have to think and believe that all the time. You have to do whatever you can to get that way.
“It’s easy to become a good climber, but I think it’s really hard to become a great climber. If you want to be a great climber, you have to be willing to want to be the best, or figure out what it takes for you to be better than you were before.”
