The Road to the Olympics with Petra Klingler
Insights from Petra Klingler, curated by Jessica Birchall
The Climbing World Championships 2023 took place in Bern, Switzerland, the home country of world class climber, Petra Klingler. Petra discussed with us the highs and lows of her extremely successful career as well as her decision to make Bern 2023 her last World Championships.
Petra’s success in Bouldering, Lead climbing and also Ice climbing has taken her on an amazing journey, competing at the highest level for most of her 19 years on the circuit. Petra has decided to give herself one last goal of reaching the Paris 2024 Olympic games, which she believes would be the perfect end to her career coming full circle in the same city in which she claimed her World Championship title in 2016.
The Qualification Process
With the Paris 2024 Olympics being the first time bouldering and lead climbing will be separate from speed, and only the second ever Olympics to include climbing as a sport, it’s safe to say the selection process of who and how the athletes qualify for the games is quite complex.
The first 6 Olympic tickets (for the combined boulder and lead competition) were allocated at this year’s World Championships in Bern. The next 10 Olympic tickets are allocated at the 5 continental qualifying events. The final opportunity for any hopefuls to compete for an elusive quota place will take from March to June 2024 in the Olympic Qualifier Series.
Road to Paris 2024 Qualification Path
Explained: How the Olympic tickets are allocated with Shauna Coxsey:
We caught up with Petra following the European Olympic Qualifier event this last October.
You mentioned how competing at the Paris Olympic games would feel like the perfect end to your career, coming full circle in a City in which you were crowned world champion in 2016, what does it mean to you to have the opportunity to compete at the Olympics next year?
Well first of all, I still have to qualify to be able to compete in Paris, but that is my goal!
It would mean so much to me, it’s hard to say why exactly, but I am just emotionally attached to this place, even before my World Championship title in 2016. I always loved French at school (even though I was probably the only one) and somehow it made its way into my heart, the language, the country, the people and with Paris 2016 it just made it even better. Now almost 10 years later, the Olympics are coming to Paris, and it would just be the perfect end to my career. It motivates me a lot to give it all I have to qualify and get to know the ‘real’ Olympic experience, that would be so special.
What does the road to the Olympics look like - training wise? Surely you’ll have some ‘down time’ to rest before starting the next hard core training block?
Well, my really long season just finished at the end of November and I am looking forward to having a week or two break from training. Even though there is no training there is still a lot of work to do, planning my new season, meetings with sponsors and potential sponsors and of course christmas shopping! But also just quality time with loved ones and time for myself. After that I will get back into training to build up the basic fitness, maybe some ice climbing comps and then back to competitions with the Olympic qualifiers in May and June. I am still figuring out how exactly my training will look, I’m looking into possibilities to go train abroad and also maybe doing some preparation camps and comps, but it's not fixed yet, so that’s the big challenge for the next two weeks.
What is your main drive to compete?
This is not an easy question to answer. Well, actually it is…it motivates me, but also just everything else surrounding competitions. Training for an event, to be ready to perform at your best that one specific day, this is a challenge which makes me thrive and want to succeed as best as possible. But as well as this, just the whole community and all the lovely people you meet on the way is a privilege and just amazing! So many stories from everyone to hear and to learn about other cultures and traditions. This community in climbing and competition climbing makes me feel at home and is something special.
If climbing had been a part of the Olympics when you first started competing, would you have still focused on Bouldering?
Yes, I think so, but maybe also lead climbing just on the side. I mean, if it would have been an Olympic sport already, then I probably would have been able to do this professionally earlier and focus all my time on climbing and not having to work as well. So there would have been more time to train, but bouldering is (in competition) where my heart is the most. But I really like that we have this possibility of changing up the training in climbing with other disciplines.
Looking back at the world championships in Bern, although you didn’t get the outcome you would have hoped, you had a beaming smile on your face as you left the mats and seemed to be having a great time competing in your home country - what would you say was your highlight of the world championships this year?
For me it was the whole event, seeing how many people came to watch us climb and cheered us on. The energy in the arena, this is what climbing deserves and I am proud of the fact that we made this happen in Switzerland! This is the future of our competition sport and what it should look like! This is what all these athletes out there deserve to get for all their hard work they put into their training. People love climbing and I loved to share my passion in Bern with all of them.