First-ever female World Champion in Sport Climbing: Combined, Janja Garnbret is our Athlete of September 2018!
Garnbret (SLO) is The World Games 2017 silver medallist in Lead, and at the recent World Championships in Innsbruck, Austria, she took gold in Bouldering, silver in Lead and gold in the new Combined event which is the discipline that is going to feature at the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2020. The 19-year-old sport climber is one of the big hopes for Slovenia in the upcoming Olympics.
Already in 2015, Garnbret placed fourth in the overall Lead climbing standings, and in 2016 she won most of the 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. In addition to her competition climbing career, Janja Garnbret is also an accomplished outdoor climber, completing the ascents of various extremely difficult routes.
Janja Garnbret started competing when she was 14 years old. “Through the years I started training harder and harder and I realized that I could be the best climber in the world. I love when adrenaline goes through your veins, when you are on your own on the wall and you try to give your best and utilize everything from your training. Everyone is watching and cheering for you”, she says. Besides school and climbing, she does not have time for much else.
“And even if I had time for anything else, I would still go climbing”, she laughs. As an advice for young athletes she say: “Focus on your goals, work hard for them and never give up.”