Janja Garnbret

She began climbing at the age of seven. She competed for the first time at a national competition, when she was eight. Her first major competition was the 2013 European Youth Championships in Bouldering, which she won.[9]

In 2015, her first year of eligibility for the IFSC Climbing World Cup, she placed seventh in the overall lead climbing standings.[10][11] In the same year, she also placed first in a notable Swedish bouldering event, the "La Sportiva Legends Only", ahead of Shauna Coxsey, Mélissa Le Nevé, Juliane Wurm, and Anna Stöhr.[12] She also won the bouldering gathering Melloblocco in 2015.[13]

In 2016, she won most of the IFSC competitions in which she participated. She won the World Cup in Lead and Combined disciplines, the World Championships in Lead, and the World Youth Championships in Lead and Bouldering.[14] Garnbret also won the Adidas Rockstars 2016 contest (an invitational contest for the world's best bouldering athletes), defeating Jessica Pilz in the superfinal.[15] She also won Rock Master in 2016, and then again in 2018.[16]

In 2017, she won the World Cup in Lead and Combined disciplines, the Combined title in the European Championships, and she ranked second in Bouldering both at the World Cup and European Championships.

In 2018, she defended her World Cup titles in Lead and Combined disciplines, and placed fourth in Bouldering by winning two golds and one silver, after participating in just 3 out of 7 events (due to school commitments). Moreover, she won World Championships in both Bouldering and Combined. She was extremely close to also winning the Lead Climbing World Championships, where she earned the silver medal by powerfully topping the final route in 4 minutes and 38 seconds, just 11 seconds slower than Jessica Pilz, who won the Championship.

In 2019, she dominated the Bouldering World Cup by solving 74 problems out of 78 and winning every event throughout the season (6 events out of 6).[17] This feat had never been achieved before in the history of competition climbing. Anna Stöhr was almost able to do the same in 2013, when she won seven Bouldering World Cup events out of eight. In the same year, Garnbret won three out of four disciplines at the 2019 IFSC Climbing World Championships, taking gold in Bouldering, Lead, and Combined.[18]

Garnbret as the 2017 European Champion in Combined discipline

Janja Garnbret climbing at the 2017 IFSC Climbing World Cup in Munich, Germany

In addition to her competition climbing career, Janja Garnbret is also an accomplished outdoor climber, completing the ascents of various extremely difficult routes.

In 2015 she on-sighted the route Avatar, an 8b (5.13d) route in Pandora, Croatia.[19] The same year she successfully climbed her first 8c+ (5.14c), Miza za šest at Kotecnik in her home country of Slovenia.[20] The next year she flashed La Fabelita at Santa Linya in Spain, an 8c (5.14b) sports climbing route. She was given advice by her countrywoman Mina Markovič and climbed the route without apparent struggle in less than 15 minutes.[21] In 2017 she went one step further and clipped the anchor of her first 9a (5.14d), Seleccio Natural, again at Santa Linya.[22] Just a few days later she climbed her second 9a route, La Fabela pa la Enmienda, also at Santa Linya.[23]

• Janja Garnbret in the Climbing World Cup