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.

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