Cheyenne Suarez

Praj Dela Cruz aims to help PH climbing community grow further, encourage more female climbers

Article (news)

Paige Javier

ABS-CBN News

<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/17824825730021782482757457.png" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960"/>Praj Dela Cruz celebrates after winning the women&#x27;s elite bouldering category at the 2026 PCI National Championship, June 22, 2026. Handout/Pilipinas Climbing </div>MANILA – Praj Dela Cruz is looking to help lift the local climbing community to greater heights by representing the Philippines on the international stage and inspiring the next generation of climbers.The 15-year-old climber has been making a name for herself, while carrying the flag in various climbing competitions.Dela Cruz recently won her third nationals title in women&#x27;s elite bouldering, months after she clinched bronze in the same event at the 33rd Southeast Asian Games in Thailand.At 14 years old, Dela Cruz won the country&#x27;s only medal in the return of sports climbing to the regional meet after 14 years.Beyond the medals and achievements, Dela Cruz has a goal that&#x27;s bigger than herself.<div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/sports/othersports/2026/6/24/climber-praj-dela-cruz-credits-maturity-for-3rd-national-bouldering-title-2343">READ: Climber Praj Dela Cruz credits maturity for 3rd national bouldering title </a></div>&quot;I wish to be an advocate for the future of climbing in the Philippines. I really want to push this sport forward in terms of women athletes out there. We do have a lot of women currently in the gym and they&#x27;re training hard. They have goals in mind,&quot; she told ABS-CBN News at Boulder Space on Wednesday.&quot;I also want to inspire the next generation of younger athletes to follow suit because once my competition is over and I retire, what&#x27;s next? And so I want to make sure that I can inspire the next generation and more athletes to continue competing in climbing,&quot; Dela Cruz said.Despite being based in Texas in the United States, Dela Cruz makes sure to stay in touch with the Philippine climbing community.  Whenever she&#x27;s back in the country, Dela Cruz said she&#x27;s glad to see the continued growth of climbing, especially seeing younger kids get into the sport. &quot;Every time I come back to the Philippines, there&#x27;s always a new gym that I have to visit and I have to look or climb in. And so, yes, I would say that climbing is becoming more accessible to everyone in the Philippines,&quot; Dela Cruz said. &quot;Some gyms could be far, some are really close. And so I&#x27;m glad that we&#x27;re having more gyms around the country to offer those experiences for people,&quot; she shared.Although she&#x27;s one of the top climbers in the country, Dela Cruz never stops learning and working on her skill and never give up mentality.&quot;Climbing is 80% falling, which is not a lot of time you&#x27;re on the wall. So if you fall, what are you going to think? Are you going to get upset because you didn&#x27;t flash the boulder or let&#x27;s say you didn&#x27;t get to the top on your first try. Oh, I&#x27;m such a bad climber. I can&#x27;t do this. I can&#x27;t do that,&quot; she said.&quot;No, that&#x27;s not true. You still have four minutes, right? That&#x27;s how much time you have per boulder. So let&#x27;s say if you fall, you could still have more time to get back up and to retry the boulder and, you know, think through the process and overcome that fear,&quot; the 15-year-old added.After competing in the 2026 PCI National Championship, Dela Cruz is looking to compete in the World Climbing Youth Championship from July 18 to 25.&quot;I plan to compete in the Youth World Cup in Arco, Italy, where I&#x27;m not just going to be the only athlete being out there to represent the Philippines. There&#x27;s also going to be other youth athletes like we have Gianna, we have Joaquin,&quot; she said.&quot;We have a lot of athletes going out there this year. And so hopefully we can make an amazing appearance and show how strong the Philippines is,&quot; Dela Cruz shared.Since she&#x27;s been climbing nearly her whole life, Dela Cruz is glad she&#x27;s found comfort and a safe place in the sport and in the Philippine climbing community.&quot;Even if I&#x27;m away from the Philippines, it doesn&#x27;t mean I lose touch from my friends. Every time I come home, I get a huge welcome. It&#x27;s Praj. She&#x27;s back home. Yay. And that just makes me happy and bubbly inside because it&#x27;s like, wow, I actually have a place here. I belong here,&quot; she said.<div>RELATED VIDEO:</div><div><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/DmRazT6sHk4?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe> </div>

Praj Dela Cruz is looking to help lift the local climbing community to greater heights by representing the Philippines on the international stage and inspiring the next generation of climbers.

Praj Dela Cruz is looking to help lift the local climbing community to greater heights by representing the Philippines on the international stage and inspiring the next generation of climbers.