LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A Louisville rock climber won an international competition on the streaming series, "The Climb."

Cat Runner, a transgender athlete, won $100,000 as part of the HBO Max series that premiered in January.

At the age of 18, Cat Runner started climbing at Louisville's bouldering gym, Climb NuLu.

"I've been climbing and enamored with the movement ever since I was little whether it was at a playground or a just like trees playing outside. Most kids experience and explore the world doing some sort of movement like this and it's only now we have a mass rise in commercialized climbing and accessibility to it," Cat said. "So, I started doing it through a youth program where I was very little, and then maybe like fourth or fifth grade stopped for a very long time to focus on Scholastic sports, and then picked it back up my senior year with this gym, Club Nulu. It's only bouldering, so there's no ropes assessed."

Now, he's known for his technical skills abroad.

"The experience has been really, really incredible. I hope I represented well. I hope I brought that Southern hospitality," Cat said.

The 24-year-old, transgender athlete who was adopted from China, says he is most proud of being able to represent the transgender community internationally.

"I'm very proud to be able to be a representative of the queer and trans community on this program. We have a habit in the climbing community that the mainstream kind of publicized vision of climbing is cisgender white and male," Cat said. "But there's a lot of diversity in the climbing community. It's just often not given the representation it deserves and this was an opportunity."

Cat says Climb NuLu mentally and physically prepared him for the opportunity.

"It's been amazing just to have this community here and have them be so supportive and excited for just this whole experience," Cat said.

In 2021, he joined nine other rock climbers in Spain after applying to an open casting call. There, he spent about four months competing and filming for the show on HBO Max.

"If I am with good people and I am good in that space, then I can climb anywhere," Cat said.

Cat hung from the cliffs in Spain, knowing he could fall into crashing waves at any second.

"You were just in your flow doing your moves, climbing, you know what to do and then you only really become aware of the water when you come out of that zone and are aware of like, 'Oh, I'm very high up on a wall,'" Cat said.

Cat went on to win "The Climb" and the $100,000 prize.

"Nothing will ever be able to compare and even though it has revolutionized my climbing, I think it also revolutionized a lot of other people's climbing because for the first time they feel seen in the climbing community and they feel welcomed in the climbing community and protected here," he said.

Cat's next adventure is taking him to South Africa's Rocklands.

"I try to climb because it's also a way for me to regulate my emotions and my stress and my anxiety. I think you do have to love it in order to push yourself, to work hard enough to see a change and to see growth. I'm really excited, just kind of the flexibility it'll give me to not only climb for myself, but really push the community to grow through education through programming," Cat said.

To watch "The Climb" on HBO Max, click here.

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