Yuji Hirayama is a Japanese rock climber specializing in lead climbing competitions. He won two Lead World Cups, in 1998 and in 2000. He is notable for being the first-ever climber to onsight an 8c (5.14b) route, and for his various speed records on El Capitan.
Josune Bereziartu, also known as Josune Bereciartu Urruzola, is a Basque rock climber. For a decade starting in the late 1990s, she was considered the strongest female sport climber in the world and is regarded as one of the most important female rock climbers in history.
Ramón Julián Puigblanque is a professional Spanish rock climber specializing in competition lead climbing and sport climbing. He won two World Championships, in 2007 and 2011, three European Championships, in 2004 2010 and 2015, and one Lead Climbing World Cup in 2010. From 2001 to 2016, he participated in 16 seasons of the World Cup, winning 21 World Cup stages. He has also redpointed several sport routes above 9a (5.14d), and made the first free ascent of La Rambla.
(not to be confused with Tomas Mrazek, the boxer with an impressive 10-75 record).
Adam Ondra is a Czech professional rock climber, specializing in lead climbing, bouldering, and competition climbing. In 2013, Rock & Ice described Ondra as a prodigy and the leading climber of his generation. Ondra is the only male athlete to have won World Championship titles in both disciplines in the same year (2014) and is also the only male athlete to have won the World Cup series in both disciplines.
Ashima Shiraishi is an American rock climber. Shiraishi started climbing at the age of six at Rat Rock in Central Park, joining her father. Only a few years later, she quickly established herself as one of the top boulderers and sport climbers in the world. Her numerous accolades include first-place finishes in international competitions, and multiple first female and youngest ascents. Shiraishi is featured in several short documentary-style films, and is the subject of the documentary short "Return to the Red" (2012).
Angela "Angy" Eiter is an Austrian professional rock climber who specialises in competition climbing and sport climbing. In competition lead climbing, she won three IFSC World Cups in a row (2004–2006), and four IFSC World Championships. In 2011, she achieved her 25th win in World Cup and her 42nd podium. She is also one of the strongest sport climbers in the world, and in 2017, became the first-ever female in history to climb a 9b (5.15b) route, La Planta de Shiva. In 2020, she became the first-ever female in history to complete the first free ascent (FFA) of a 9b (5.15b) route, Madame Ching.
Mina Markovič is a professional rock climber who specialized in competition climbing, from which she is now retired. She competed in the World Cup and World Championships in competition lead climbing, competition bouldering, and competition speed climbing, obtaining her best results in lead. She also climbs on outdoor sport climbing routes where she has redpointed to 9a (5.14d).
Kim Ja-in, more widely known in the West as Jain Kim, is a professional climber who specializes in competition climbing. She is mainly active in competition lead climbing and competition bouldering. She has won the Lead Climbing World Cup three times, the Lead Climbing World Championship once (2014), and the Rock Master once. Moreover, she has won the Asian Championships 14 times in 15 years, namely 11 times in lead climbing and 3 times in bouldering.
Janja Garnbret 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. She is also the world's first-ever female climber to onsight an 8c (5.14b) graded sport climbing route. As of 2023, Garnbret had won the most IFSC gold medals of any competition climber in history.
Anak Verhoeven is a Belgian rock climber who specializes in sport climbing and in competition lead climbing. She has repeatedly won the Belgian National Championship in lead climbing. In 2016, she ranked first on the IFSC World Ranking List. In 2017, she won both the World Games and IFSC Climbing European Championships. Verhoeven is also one of the strongest female sport climbers, and in 2017, became the first-ever woman in history to establish a new 9a+ (5.15a) route, Sweet Neuf.
Jakob Schubert is an Austrian professional rock climber, specializing in competition climbing, sport climbing, and bouldering. He was four times World Champion and three times World Cup winner in lead climbing. In August 2021, he won bronze at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. As of the end of 2022, Schubert had won the most men's IFSC gold medals of any male competition climber in history. In addition to competition climbing, Schubert is one of only a handful of climbers in the world to have redpointed 9c (5.15d) routes.
Stefano Ghisolfi is an Italian professional rock climber, who specializes in competition climbing, sport climbing, and bouldering. In competition climbing, he completes in competition lead climbing, competition bouldering, and competition speed climbing, with lead being his strongest discipline. As a sport climber, he has redpointed sport climbing routes of grade 9b+ (5.15c), onsighted routes of 8c (5.14b), and solved boulder problems at grade 8B+ (V14). In December 2018, after climbing Perfecto Mundo, he became the fourth climber in history to redpoint a 9b+ (5.15c) route.
Akiyo Noguchi is a Japanese professional rock climber who specializes in competition bouldering as well as outdoor bouldering and sport climbing.
Kilian Fischhuber is a professional Austrian rock climber who specializes in bouldering, sport climbing and competition climbing, where competes in bouldering and lead climbing. From 2005 to 2011, he won five Bouldering World Cups. No other male climber was ever able to win it more than three times, or win it three times in a row. Due to his outstanding career, he was awarded the La Sportiva Competition Award in 2009, together with Chris Sharma.
Patxi Usobiaga Lakunza, best known as Patxi Usobiaga, is a Spanish professional rock climber, sports climber and boulderer. He is known for winning two Lead Climbing World Cups in a row, and for being the first-ever climber in history to onsight an 8c+ (5.14c) route.
Christian Core is an Italian professional rock climber who specialises in bouldering and competition bouldering. He is known for being the first-ever person in the world to climb an 8C+ (V16) boulder, Gioia, in 2008. As a competition climber, Core won the Bouldering World Cup twice in 1999 and 2002, and also won the Bouldering World Championship in 2003.
Muriel Sarkany is a Belgian professional rock climber who specialized in competition lead climbing where she is known for winning five Climbing World Cups. She also specialized in outdoor sport climbing and is considered the fourth-ever female climber in history to redpoint a 9a (5.14d)-graded route, which was PuntX, in Gorges du Loup, in FRA.
Robyn Erbesfield-Raboutou, is an American rock climber and rock climbing coach. In competition lead climbing, she is a 4-time World Cup champion, and won the biennial World Championships in 1995. She is the third-ever woman in history to redpoint a 5.14a (8b+) graded sport climbing route. She has coached several competition climbers, including Megan Mascarenas, Margo Hayes and her daughter, Brooke Raboutou.
Maja Vidmar is a Slovenian rock climber who specializes in competition lead climbing and sport climbing, and is known for winning the 2007 Lead Climbing World Championship. She started competing in 2000, at the age of 15, and retired from international competitions at the age of 29, after participating in the 2014 Lead Climbing World Championship and 2014 Lead Climbing World Cup. She was the second-ever woman in history to onsight an 8b+ (5.14a) route.
