Aaron Shamy climbed his way into world prominence June 25 by winning the World Extreme Speed Climbing Championship in San Francisco, Calif.

Set on a pier near the bay — surrounded by nearly 90,000 spectators and viewed by a national television audience — Aaron scaled the man-made 60-foot wall to post a new world speed climbing record.

His "squeaky clean, bubbly personality" shattered a stereotype of "new-age competitors," stated an article published the next day in a San Francisco newspaper. In a world of "scraggly facial hair" and "tattoos," an "aspiring Mormon missionary" won a gold medal in "the X Games [that] are supposed to be stocked with rebels ready to tear down the establishment," it continued.

For Aaron, an 18-year-old priest in the Holladay 24th Ward, Holladay Utah North Stake, there is no difference between loving the Lord and loving life, said his father, Kevin. "Faith in God gives him faith in himself."

"His exuberance for life can be seen in his climbing," said the ESPN commentator during the championship climb, describing how Aaron exploded from one hold to another.

A crew from ESPN spent three days with Aaron in early June interviewing and filming him while he was climbing rugged rocks, water skiing and singing in his high school vocal ensemble prior to his graduation.

Aaron's eagerness to share his testimony filtered through many of his comments. When the feature segment aired on national television prior to the championship climb, Aaron unabashedly spoke of his personal standards. "There is no time to do the unspiritual, unholy stuff that corrupts lives and makes people unhappy," he said.

Such candid comments were not expected from such a young man by the film crew and were the cause of several off-camera conversations.

"When we were driving to different places they wanted to know why I would walk away from speed climbing, when I'm on top of the climbing world, to serve a mission," he said.

"I answered their questions, and sometimes I volunteered answers to questions they should have asked."

At 5-feet 6-inches tall and 125 pounds, Aaron stands nine inches shorter than the climber from Ukraine who beat him by the length of a hand in 1998 for the world championship.

Yet, from his first efforts to climb, Aaron demonstrated a unique ability.

Aaron began climbing at age 14 at the suggestion of a friend. "Do you want to get me killed?" was his first response to his friend's invitation.

Yet, despite his skepticism, he attended the first day of classes with his friend at a specialty climbing gym. After one evening of climbing, "I got the bug," he said. Climbing has been a passion ever since.

Eighteen months later, Aaron had sufficiently demonstrated his technical climbing ability to be invited to participate in his first sanctioned regional meet in San Francisco. There, against a field of national caliber competitors, he took second place, though he was still an unknown in the sport.

Following the technical portion of the climbing competition, an announcement over the public address system encouraged climbers to join in a relatively new competition called speed climbing. Aaron was trained in rock climbing skills. But the concept of scaling a man-made wall for speed was compelling and he signed up. In his first attempt at speed climbing, he took first place.

Today, Aaron is ranked among the top eight technical climbers in the country and is a member of the U.S. Climbing team. He is ranked No. 1 in the world in speed climbing.

Such high-profile accomplishments have opened many doors for Aaron to share his testimony. One night, sitting with members of the U.S. Climbing team at dinner during a weeklong climbing camp, questions of Aaron's religious practices came up. Aaron explained his beliefs and by the end of the discussion several hours later had organized the plates and utensils on the table to illustrate the plan of salvation.

"One friend was particularly eager to learn," Aaron said.

But beyond the excitement of winning, Aaron has his focus on serving a mission — following in the footsteps of an older brother who is currently serving in Mexico City. "This is not about trophies," he said. "This about doing things of eternal worth."