Melina Costanza
SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH
Under the white-hot spotlight of competition, immersed in the thunderous music and roar of the crowd, Melina Costanza feels right at home. With six national championship titles to her name across the Open and Collegiate divisions, Melina is no stranger to pressure. However, before she was dubbed "America's Next Top Climber" by Gripped Magazine, she earned her stripes at "America's First Climbing Gym" in Seattle, Washington.
At only five years of age, Melina discovered climbing like most youth athletes: at a birthday party. Already an agile ball of energy scaling every lamppost and door frame in sight, she was immediately captivated by this new challenge to test her strength and bravery. At the same time, her parents seized the opportunity to channel her vertical inclinations safely. She quickly progressed through multiple after-school programs before being invited to join the highly competitive Vertical World Climbing Team. Within two years of her competitive debut, she stood on her first Youth National Podium and shortly thereafter went on to represent Team USA at the Youth Pan American Championships in Ecuador, where she earned gold medals in both the bouldering and sport climbing disciplines. These would be the first of many international achievements Melina would earn throughout her youth career, which included nine consecutive years representing the US Youth National Team and multiple Youth National Championship titles.
After capping off her youth competitive career by winning gold in her final Youth National Championship and earning a spot on the North Face Young Gun Rookie Team, Melina declined the opportunity to attend her sixth consecutive Youth World Championship to begin her freshman year at the University of Pennsylvania. Although she tentatively planned to end her competition career as she ushered in this new life chapter, she found herself unable to stay away from the climbing gym, which had always been her sanctuary. She ended her freshman year with her first Collegiate National Championship title in sport climbing before the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic forced college students nationwide to return home for nearly two years of lockdowns. During this period, Melina was fortunate to share a home climbing wall with her younger brother, Leo, another accomplished competitive climber. While virtually attending her undergraduate classes, she trained diligently every day at home, preparing to throw her hat in the ring for the upcoming Open season.
As competitions resumed in 2021, Melina competed in three North America Cup Series (NACS) competitions across both the bouldering and lead disciplines, claiming the gold in each one. She rounded out her extraordinary season with her first Open National Championship title in bouldering and a gold medal at the 2022 US Team Trials in lead climbing, as well as achieving the highest combined lead/boulder score in either the men's or women's field. Only months later, she claimed the Collegiate National Championship titles in both bouldering and lead climbing at her final Collegiate Nationals before graduating Magna Cum Laude at UPenn with a degree in physics. Melina rounded out her collegiate career by taking the silver medal at the FISU Collegiate World Championship in Innsbruck, Austria.
Unfortunately, an injury sustained while traveling on the 2022 World Cup Circuit prevented Melina from participating in the following competition season. Immediately after undergoing surgery on her broken foot which prevented her from walking for months, Melina was already back in the gym campusing, hangboarding, and lifting weights. Through this tumultuous period, Melina became a vocal advocate for mental health and proper sports nutrition, both of which she prioritized during her return to the competitive field. In the 2023 season, she embraced the pressure of the spotlight head-on, taking gold at her first major competition back, a North America Cup in Costa Rica. She rounded out the season with her best National Championship performance to date: a double-gold in sport climbing and bouldering.
While Melina continues to pursue excellence on the competitive stage, she is also following a blossoming passion for outdoor climbing. Following her National Championship victories in 2023, Melina climbed her first V13 boulder outdoors, After Hours. Additionally, while she's not climbing, Melina is a registered patent agent at a Seattle law firm and plans to attend law school.
Accomplishments:
- 4x North America Cup Gold Medalist
- 2x Open Bouldering National Champion
- 1x Open Lead National Champion
- 2x Collegiate Lead National Champion
- 1x Collegiate Bouldering National Champion
- Collegiate World Championship Silver Medal
- 3x Youth Pan American Champion