VIDEO: Olympians Splat, Too! And Pick Back Up …

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Shauna Coxsey (UK) was at one point the most dominant woman in the Bouldering World Cup, winning the overall title in 2015 and 2016.  She’d have seemed a sure thing for the Olympics had the Games included climbing at that time.

Then came injuries. Surgeries. Climbing was indeed ushered into the Olympics, but would she be part of it? And … yes! Coxsey, age 28, has long been so deserving, it seemed like justice when, following significant setbacks from finger and knee injuries, she qualified in the first batch of athletes to make the 2020 (now upcoming) Olympic Games in Tokyo. The only British climber to take part, she has been training with joy and focus.

Having at first been dismayed to see speed climbing required, to the point where Coxsey told Reuters that she wondered if the Olympics were for her, she even came to like speed for its simplicity and measurable progress: She said in the interview, “I never thought I would enjoy it as much as I do and that I would get addicted to the adrenaline and watching my times get quicker.”

Yet, like the rest of us, she gets torqued sometimes. This boulder problem, per below, was “so so so spicy.” Did she stick with it? Sure she did.

See also “Meet Shauna Coxsey” on gymclimber.com, and read her own account of her journey and how she coped with the yearlong delay of the Olympics due to the pandemic: “The Long and Winding Road” by Shauna Coxsey.

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