Colorado's Brook Raboutou Is First American Climber To Qualify For Olympics

DENVER (CBS4) - At Denver International Airport on Monday night Colorado's climbing community gathered to welcome home one amazing teen, 18-year-old Colorado News, Brooke Raboutou. The star rock climber made history as the first ever American climber to qualify for an Olympic Games.

She'll be competing at the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo.

"I don't really know if it's clicked yet," she told CBS4.

Raboutou, a Boulder resident, qualified over the weekend at a competition in Hachioji, Japan. She finished ninth in the combined qualification round at the IFSC Climbing World Championships.

"I was just watching the other people climb and someone came up and said 'I think you made it,' and I was like 'No, I don't think so.' I checked and they were right," said Raboutou.

Her mother, Robyn Erbesfield-Raboutou, was at DIA to greet her and couldn't believe the news.

"I pinch myself every day, I'm like 'Did that really happen? Did she really pull that together?'" she told CBS4.

The teen has been climbing since she was a kid and has made quite a name for herself. Her Instagram account has more than 60,000 followers.

Raboutou will head back to school for the next few months, and her mother says she'll ramp up her training after Christmas.