Janja
Garnbret
Slovenia
·
Climbing
Date of birth | March 12, 1999 |
|---|---|
Birthplace | Šmartno pri Slovenj Gradcu, Slovenia |
Age | 26 |
Nationality | Slovenia |
Career start | 2013 |
Disciplines | Climbing Boulder / Climbing Lead / Climbing Speed / Climbing Combined |
Janja Garnbret first discovered climbing at the beginning of elementary school and the first peaks she conquered were the tops of trees, cabinets and other pieces of furniture at home in Smarna near Slovenj Gradec, Slovenia.
"I got introduced to climbing actually by myself. As a kid, I was always climbing everywhere that was higher than me, so on chairs, on closets, I was always at the highest branch of a tree and it broke so many times, but I didn't get scared."
From that start point Garnbret enrolled on a climbing course, where she was introduced to the techniques of climbing as a sport.
By the end of elementary school, Garnbret had made the Slovenian Youth Climbing Team and she crowned her first season in national colours with the title of European Junior Champion in 2013.
"My whole life, like kind of revolved around climbing. School was always second and climbing was always first. I wanted to make my life all around climbing."
By the end of high school, Garnbret had already packed nearly two dozen world-class awards into her trophy cabinet. In 2014, 2015 and 2016 she won gold at the World Junior Championships and progressed from there to winning most of the IFSC competitions in which she participated in 2016. Garnbret won the World Cup in Lead and Combined disciplines, the World Championships in Lead, and the World Youth Championships in Lead and Bouldering in 2016.
The next year, 2017, saw Garnbret win the World Cup in Lead and Combined, the Combined title in the European Championships and a second place in Bouldering in both the World Cup and the European Championships.
The Slovenian Sports Journalists Association named Garnbret Athlete of the Year in 2018, and in early 2019 she was the recipient of the Bloudk Award for Outstanding International Achievement.
In the first half of 2019, six consecutive boulder-climbing victories crowned her the overall winner of the Bouldering World Cup and she became the World Champion in both Bouldering and Difficulty climbing and the 3x3 format at the Tokyo World Championships.
The self-proclaimed perfectionist admits that practicing and competing is almost like an addiction for her, and that she loves to train as the motivation is to keep on progressing to be better.
"Sometimes in training a hold feels very bad, but then two months of training [later] and this hold feels very good. So, it’s the progress that is addictive, because you see the training is working, you get stronger and stronger. I’m addicted to progress."
In terms of her climbing style, she defines her unique style as “high risk, high reward”.
"Right now, I would say I am a high risk, high reward climber, so I just go for it. And sometimes people say that it's not under control, but everything is under control still."
Away from the spotlight of competition, Garnbret aims to conquer the peaks of as many of the world's toughest rock formations as possible. In this vein, in 2020, she teamed up with compatriot Domen Škofic to take on the 360 Ascent project, which saw the duo scale the world's longest artificial multi-pitch route 360m up Europe's tallest chimney.
In 2021, Garnbret became the first-ever female Olympic gold medallist in climbing, then in 2022 won gold at the second edition of the European Championships in Munich. This was followed up with more success in 2023 when she claimed first place in the Boulder and Combined events at the World Championships in Switzerland.
Slovenian climbing legend Janja Garnbret
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Janja Garnbret claims 10th world title with Bouderling gold in Seoul
© Jan Virt/Red Bull Content Pool
Janja Garnbret has won all there is to win in climbing
© Jessica Glassberg/Red Bull Content Pool
Climbing legend Janja Garnbret powering up the wall in Innsbruck
© Jessica Glassberg/Red Bull Content Pool