Motivated Perfectionist

Janja Garnbret, the most dominant comp climber on the planet

- May Pang

Janja Garnbret is the most successful competitive climber alive, bar none. It is likely no one will match her record for decades, if ever.

Garnbret, of Slovenia, has been redefining the word dominance since she burst into the adult competitive climbing field in 2015. In a few short years, she has set milestone after milestone in competition climbing.

She began her record-breaking streak following the 2019 Bouldering World Cup series by becoming the first athlete— male or female—to win every event in a single discipline of a World Cup season. After winning all six out of six events in Bouldering, she proceeded to also dominate at the recent World Championships held in August in Hachioji, Japan— winning three of the four gold medals on offer. In doing so, she became the first female athlete to win both the Lead and Boulder World Champion titles in the same year. She topped it off by also winning the gold medal in the Combined event. Her rise to glory has been so meteoric that little is known of Garnbret. Recorded interviews of her are rare and short and mainly focused on a specific competition. May Pang sat down with Garnbret to learn just who is Janja Garnbret?

Pang: One of the commentators in the Munich World Cup said, “look up the word “Dominance” in the dictionary, because it’s now got Janja Garnbret in it.

Janja: I started competing when I was 15 or 16, I don’t really remember. So, I have pretty much short career and I already have a lot of titles. Yes. And that’s crazy.

Pang: Jain Kim has 30 World Cup gold medals. So, you could probably break that record this year? [Editor’s note: as of press time, Janja has 32 gold metals].