Shauna
Coxsey
United Kingdom
·
Bouldering
Date of birth | 27 January 1993 |
|---|---|
Age | 33 |
Nationality | United Kingdom |
Disciplines | Bouldering |
Considering she does not come from a climbing background, Shauna's achievements in the world of bouldering are all the more impressive. "I have five sisters and a brother and none of them do anything sporty. I’m definitely the black sheep," says the Runcorn-born athlete.
Inspired by a climbing movie featuring French free climber Catherine Destivelle, Coxsey first went to a climbing wall when she was only four years old. Although she was not tall enough to be allowed to climb, she continued to insist and was eventually allowed on the wall a few months later. She immediately knew that climbing was her thing – and hasn't looked back since.
Shauna Coxsey is one of only four women ever to have climbed a boulder route graded 8B+, the third-most difficult rating of all. She has also won every British Bouldering Championship she’s ever entered. In 2016, she won the Women’s Bouldering title at the International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC) World Cup – and went onto do the same in 2017.
In 2016, she was also named in the Queen's Birthday Honours list as a recipient of an MBE – the very same weekend she won the IFSC Boulder World Cup title.
The following year Shauna continued her dazzling form by winning four stages in Meiringen, Kazo, Mumbai and Vail to give her a successive Boulder World Cup title, as well as a bronze medal in the Combined category.
In August 2019, the chalk bag-totting superstar won two bronze medals at the 2019 IFSC Climbing World Championships in Hachioji, Japan, in Bouldering and the Combined event.
In fact, her performance during that 2019 World Championship saw Shauna set a British women's speed climbing record of 9.141s, and her run to the finals in Combined meant that she qualified for the 2020 Olympics.
Team GB’s first-ever sport climber, Shauna competed in Tokyo, but due to a longstanding back injury which meant she couldn't train, she missed out on the final, finishing 10th overall in the standings.
Having since retired from competition climbing, Shauna continues to climb both outdoors at her local spots and internationally too.