Competitive Climbing - Champions
The International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC) works as the international governing body for competitive climbing worldwide. It was founded in the year 2007 and initially there were 48 members. Presently, it has grown to 81 members.
Previously, it used to be a part of the International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation. It is also responsible for organizing different competitive climbing competitions worldwide.
Some of the climbing competitions that are organized by IFSC worldwide are as follows −
- IFSC Climbing World Championship
- IFSC Climbing World Cup
- IFSC European Championship
- IFSC World Youth Championship
- IFSC European Youth Cup
Let us now have a brief synopsis of some of the great players of Competitive Climbing who brought laurels to their country by playing at the highest level.
Ramón Julián Puigblanque
Ramón Julián Puigblanque is from Barcelona, Spain and is a professional rock climber with specialization in lead climbing discipline. In his sports climbing career, he has won the world championship two times in 2007 and 2011.
He has also won two European championships in 2004 and 2010 and one silver and one bronze in 2013 and 2002 respectively. He has won a gold in World Games 2013 in lead climbing. Along with this he has won the 2010 Lead World Cup.
David Lama
David Lama is from Innsbruck, Austria and is a sports climber as well as a mountaineer. At the age of 15, he was the youngest person to compete at the World Cup and the first person to win both lead and bouldering world cups in the first season.
He has won gold twice at the European Championships in 2006 and 2007 and has won the IFSC Climbing World Cup in 2008. In 2011, he retired from climbing in order to concentrate more in mountaineering.
Dmitri Sarafutdinov
Dmitri Sarafutdinov belongs to Korkino, Russia and is a professional rock climber with specialization in bouldering discipline. Till now, he has won ten gold medals in bouldering including one IFSC Climbing World Cup in 2013.
He also has won the IFSC World Championships three times in bouldering in 2007, 2011, and 2012. Along with this he participated in IFSC European Championship in 2006 and 2013. In 2006, he won a bronze and in 2013, he won a silver medal.
Sean McColl
Sean McColl belongs to North Vancouver, Canada and is a rock climber with specialization in Lead, Speed, and Bouldering disciplines. At a young age, he has won the Youth World Championship in 2002, 2003, and 2004.
Till now he has won 23 major titles worldwide in all formats of competitive climbing including five world titles in 2009, 2012 and 2014. Besides competitive climbing, he is also an outdoor climber with some major achievements.
Jain Kim
Jain Kim belongs to Goyang, South Korea and is a professional climber mainly active in lead climbing and bouldering disciplines. She has won the Lead Climbing World Cup in 2010, 2013 and 2014 and three silvers in 2009, 2011, and 2012.
She has won seven golds and three silvers in the Asian championship in lead climbing and in bouldering disciplines individually. She is also a successful rock climber and has also won one gold in the Rock Master in lead discipline.
Mina Markovič
Mina Markovič belongs to Maribor, Slovenia and is a professional climber with specialization in Lead and Bouldering disciplines. She has won the IFSC Climbing World Cup four times with two times in overall and two times in lead discipline.
She also has won two silvers and one bronze in IFSC European Championships. She has won the world games in 2013 in lead discipline. She also has won silver in Rock master in 2009 in lead discipline.
Anna Stöhr
Anna Stöhr belongs to Reith im Alpbachtal, Austria and is a professional climber with specialization in Bouldering discipline. At the beginning of her career, she started competing in speed, lead and bouldering disciplines. Later on she concentrated only on bouldering which brought her great success.
Considered as one of the best bouldering climber in the sports, she has won a total of 42 medals till now in her career that includes 22 golds, 13 silvers and 9 bronzes all in bouldering discipline. She has won two golds and two bronzes in the IFSC World Championships along with two golds and three silvers in IFSC European Championships.
Shauna Coxsey
Shauna Coxsey belongs to Cheshire, United Kingdom and is a professional climber with specialization in Lead and Bouldering disciplines. She has won six golds, six silvers and five bronzes in climbing World Cup in bouldering discipline till now.
She also has won five British Climbing Championships with four in bouldering and one in lead in 2012, 2013 and 2016. For her service to climbing, she was appointed as Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 2016.
