Garnbret hanging hopes on Paris gold

As a child she climbed doors, closets and trees — then she started to win climbing competition after climbing competition.

At the Paris Olympics this summer, eight-time world champion Janja Garnbret is looking to win another gold medal, just like she did in Tokyo in 2021 when the sport made its Games debut.

"Once you have an Olympic medal, you want another one," the 25-year-old Slovenian "spider woman" said in an interview between training sessions in Japan and China.

While in Slovenia, Garnbret spends most of her time in a tucked-away climbing gym near Vrhnika, some 20 kilometers south of Ljubljana.

Despite her success — an illustrated children's book about her life is set to be released later this year — Garnbret keeps her feet firmly on the ground.

She believes she is blessed to be able to do what she has enjoyed doing since she was seven.

"When I'm competing, I feel like nothing else matters," she said.

"I don't hear the crowd. It's just me in my own world, my own bubble. My mind is clear.

"I don't have any thoughts. I climb by intuition."

'Strong and light'

Garnbret's parents discovered her talent during one of their many attempts to keep their "hyperactive" daughter busy.

During one excursion, they came upon a six-meter-high promotional climbing wall, which made Janja stop and "stare at it, tempted".

Once secured to ropes, "she just climbed to the top", her father, Vili Garnbret, proudly remembers.

She then joined a local climbing club near their home, eventually stopping her other hobby, dance classes, to focus fully on the sport.

"I personally wasn't so excited about her decision, but I accepted it," her mother, Darja Garnbret, recalls, adding that both parents fully supported their daughter, even though they initially "did not know about this sport".

Garnbret herself believes her first climbing steps happened much earlier, when she was "climbing doors, closets and trees as a little girl".

"One of the first feelings I remember when climbing was how, when I was on the wall, I felt strong and light at the same time. This is still the feeling I still look forward to the most every time I go climbing," she said.

She adds that, in climbing, she "found that spark, that fire in me".

'Exceptional'

One of her first coaches, Rok Malek, said Garnbret only took three or four months to outperform peers who had been training for two years or more.

"Her talent is exceptional. She moves intuitively," he said.

Her current coach Roman Krajnik also remembers being impressed when he first saw her at a national competition.

"She's definitely made for this sport," Krajnik said, lauding her tough training regimen — with just one day off after three days of training — while deeming her already "ready" for the Paris Olympics.

Garnbret will compete in the lead and bouldering disciplines — which are separate to speed climbing — from Aug 5 to 10.

"Even though she has achieved pretty much everything she could, she's still prepared to train like she never achieved anything before," Krajnik said.

Her perseverance was crucial last year, when she suffered her first serious injury, fracturing her big toe in training.

"It was a really hard period. I had a lot of negative thoughts and a lot of doubts," Garnbret recalled, but added that the injury brought "positive sides" too, with her doing a lot of "single-leg training" and learning patience.

"I've become stronger," she said sending out a clear warning to those who would dream of stealing her Olympic crown.

AFP