Janja Garnbret

Last updated

Janja Garnbret
Janja Garnbret 2017 (cropped).jpg
Garnbret at the 2017 Boulder World Cup in Munich
Personal information
NationalitySlovenian
Born (1999-03-12) 12 March 1999 (age 25)
Slovenj Gradec, Slovenia [1]
OccupationProfessional rock climber
Website janja-garnbret.com
Climbing career
Type of climber
Highest grade
Known for
  • First-ever female Olympic gold medalist in climbing
  • Winning 8 IFSC World Championships
  • Winning the most IFSC gold medals in history
  • First-ever female to onsight 8c  (5.14b)
Medal record
Women's competition climbing
Representing Flag of Slovenia.svg  Slovenia
Olympic Games
Gold medal icon (G initial).svg 2020 Tokyo Combined
World Championships
Gold medal icon (G initial).svg 2016 Paris Lead
Gold medal icon (G initial).svg 2018 Innsbruck Bouldering
Gold medal icon (G initial).svg2018 InnsbruckCombined
Gold medal icon (G initial).svg 2019 Hachiōji Lead
Gold medal icon (G initial).svg2019 HachiōjiBouldering
Gold medal icon (G initial).svg2019 HachiōjiCombined
Gold medal icon (G initial).svg 2023 Bern Bouldering
Gold medal icon (G initial).svg2023 BernCombined
Silver medal icon (S initial).svg2018 InnsbruckLead
Silver medal icon (S initial).svg2023 BernLead
World Games
Silver medal icon (S initial).svg 2017 Wrocław Lead
European Championships
Gold medal icon (G initial).svg2017 MunichCombined
Gold medal icon (G initial).svg 2022 Munich Lead
Gold medal icon (G initial).svg2022 MunichBouldering
Gold medal icon (G initial).svg2022 MunichCombined
Silver medal icon (S initial).svg2015 ChamonixLead
Silver medal icon (S initial).svg2017 MunichBouldering
Updated on 9 April 2024.

Janja Garnbret (born 12 March 1999) is a Slovenian professional rock climber who specializes in sport climbing and competition climbing, and who has won multiple competition lead climbing and competition bouldering events. In 2021, she became the first-ever female Olympic gold medalist in climbing and is widely regarded as one of the greatest competition climbers of all time. [2] [3] [4] She is also the world's first-ever female climber to onsight an 8c  (5.14b) graded sport climbing route.

Contents

Garnbret won her first international title at the 2014 World Youth B Championships in lead. In July 2015, after turning 16, she entered the senior category of the IFSC Climbing World Cup in lead climbing. In 2016, aged 17, Garnbret won the World Cup seasonal titles in lead and combined, World Championships in lead climbing, and World Youth A Championships in both lead climbing and bouldering. From 2016 to 2018, she was awarded the seasonal title in both lead climbing and combined disciplines. In both 2018 and 2019, she won the World Championships in bouldering and combined and also reclaimed the lead title in 2019. The same year, Garnbret became the first athlete to win all bouldering World Cup events in a season.

As of April 2024, Garnbret has won the most IFSC gold medals of any competitive climber in history. In the lead climbing World Cup, she missed the podium only four times, winning 26 matches. In addition, she has won 16 bouldering World Cup events for a total of 42 victories at the World Cup level. [5]

Early life

Garnbret started climbing at the age of seven and first competed in the national competition at the age of eight. She won her first major competition at the 2013 European Youth Championships, where she won in bouldering. [6]

Climbing career

Competition climbing

In 2015, her first year of eligibility for the IFSC Climbing World Cup, she placed seventh in the overall lead climbing standings. [7] [8] The same year, she also placed first in a Swedish bouldering event, the "La Sportiva Legends Only", ahead of Shauna Coxsey, Mélissa Le Nevé, Juliane Wurm, and Anna Stöhr. [9] She also won the bouldering gathering Melloblocco in 2015. [10]

In 2016, she won most of the IFSC competitions in which she participated. She won the World Cup in lead and combined disciplines, the World Championships in lead, and the World Youth Championships in lead and bouldering. [11] Garnbret also won the Adidas Rockstars 2016 contest (an invitational contest for the world's best bouldering athletes), defeating Jessica Pilz in the superfinal. [12] She also won Rock Master in 2016, and then again in 2018. [13]

In 2017, she won the World Cup in lead and combined disciplines, the combined title in the European Championships, and ranked second in bouldering in the World Cup and the European Championships.

In 2018, she defended her World Cup titles in lead and combined disciplines and placed fourth in bouldering by winning two golds and one silver, after participating in just 3 out of 7 events (due to school commitments). Moreover, she won the World Championships in both bouldering and combined. She was close to also winning the Lead Climbing World Championships, where she earned the silver medal by topping the final route in 4 minutes and 38 seconds, just 11 seconds slower than Jessica Pilz, who won the Championship.

In 2019, she dominated the bouldering World Cup by solving 74 problems out of 78 and winning every event throughout the season. [14] Throughout six events, she placed first in six qualifications, [15] four semifinals [16] and six finals. [17] This feat had never been achieved before in the history of competition climbing. The same year, Garnbret won three out of four disciplines at the 2019 IFSC Climbing World Championships, taking gold in lead, bouldering, and combined. [18] Her win in the combined event qualified her for a spot at the 2020 Summer Olympics. [19]

In 2021, she began the 2021 IFSC Climbing World Cup season with a win in bouldering at Meiringen in April before finishing second in Salt Lake City, ending her streak of bouldering World Cup wins at nine. [20] In the same year, she became the first ever female Olympic champion in sport climbing, taking gold in the women's combined event at the 2020 Summer Olympics. [21]

In April 2022, after her first bouldering World Cup victory in the 2022 IFSC Climbing World Cup season at Meiringen, Garnbret announced that she would skip the remaining bouldering events to focus on the European Championships and the lead events of the World Cup. [22] At the 2022 European Championships in Munich, Garnbret won gold in all three events – lead, bouldering, and combined – with the first two being the only titles she had never won before, thus completing the feat of winning every possible major title in sport climbing. [23] [24]

In August 2023, Garnbret qualified for the combined event at the 2024 Olympics by winning the combined title in the 2023 World Championship. [25] She also won the gold medal in the individual boulder event and the silver medal in the individual lead event, bringing her World Championship medal tally to ten, including eight gold. [26]

Garnbret as the 2017 European champion in combined discipline European championship climbing combined 2017 women 9463.jpg
Garnbret as the 2017 European champion in combined discipline
Garnbret climbing at the 2017 IFSC Climbing World Cup in Munich, Germany Janja Garnbret SLO 9690.jpg
Garnbret climbing at the 2017 IFSC Climbing World Cup in Munich, Germany
Garnbret with the gold medal from the 2020 Summer Olympics Sprejem za olimpijce 2021 (52131393588) (cropped).jpg
Garnbret with the gold medal from the 2020 Summer Olympics

Rock climbing

In 2015, Garnbret onsighted Avatar, an 8b  (5.13d) sport climbing route in Pandora, Croatia. [27] The same year she successfully climbed her first 8c+  (5.14c), Miza za šest at Kotečnik in her home country of Slovenia. [28] The next year she flashed La Fabelita in Santa Linya, an 8c  (5.14b) sport climbing route. She was given advice by her countrywoman Mina Markovič and climbed the route in less than 15 minutes. [29]

In 2017, she went one step further and clipped the anchor of her first 9a  (5.14d) graded sport route, Seleccio Natural, in Santa Linya. [30] Just a few days later she climbed her second 9a route, La Fabela pa la Enmienda, also in Santa Linya. [31]

In November 2021, she onsighted Fish Eye in Oliana, Spain, which was the world's first-ever female onsight of a consensus 8c  (5.14b) sport route in history. [32]

In March 2022, Garnbret made the first female ascent of Bügeleisen, an 8B+  (V14) graded bouldering problem in Maltatal, Austria. [33]

Rankings

Climbing World Cup

[34]

Discipline20152016201720182019202120222023
Lead71112112
Bouldering172412188
Speed584812
Combined1111

Climbing World Championships

Youth [5]
Discipline2013
Youth B
2014
Youth B
2015
Youth A
2016
Youth A
Lead4111
Bouldering11
Speed2328
Combined2 [35] 2 [36]
Senior [5]
Discipline 2016 2018 2019 2023
Lead1212
Bouldering111
Speed4723
Combined111

Climbing European Championships

Youth [5]
Discipline2013
Youth B
2014
Youth B
2015
Youth A
Lead111
Bouldering111
Senior [5]
Discipline20152017 2022
Lead241
Bouldering21
Speed32
Combined11

World Cup podiums

As of 9 April 2024, Garnbret has won 42 World Cup events and has a total of 62 podium finishes. [5]

Lead

SeasonGoldSilverBronzeTotal
2015213
2016426
2017628
2018437
2019123
202011
202133
2022527
202333
Total2610541

Bouldering

SeasonGoldSilverBronzeTotal
201611
2017314
2018213
201966
2021213
202211
2023112
202411
Total165021

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References

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