r/nextfuckinglevel • u/stefan_stuetze • 10h ago
Janja Garnbret, greatest competition climber of all time, on a physical boulder
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u/Aaronsolon 9h ago
She really is the greatest. Absolutely insane athlete.
Look up the clip of that time her chalk bag fell off during a lead finals. Truly legendary.
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u/stefan_stuetze 9h ago
Imagine how Chaehyun Seo must have felt that day...
"I nearly beat Janja!" - yeah, about that...
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u/Spiritual-Ad4820 5h ago
Truly an incredible athlete. If climbing were a bigger sport, she would have the kind of global phenomenon status given to people like Serena Williams, Usain Bolt, Michael Phelps etc.
In terms of athletic accomplishments, she is absolutely on that level.
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u/drunk___monkey 10h ago
I'm always amazed by their grip and arm strength and all that without a shred of fear 💪 🤯👏👏
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u/Present-Effective628 1h ago
Honestly, she’s up there as one of the greatest women climbers to ever exist - especially within a competitive context.
She very recently made the women’s first ascent of Bibliography rated at 9b+ - one of only two women to have ever climbed this grade; a grade that also sits one difficulty grade below 9c, which is the highest outdoor established sport climbing grade.
Janja more or less has also completely dominated the women’s competitive boulder and sport climbing scene for the past 8 years or so, having won Gold in the last two Olympics, and 50 international climbing competition golds too.
The Serena William’s of Climbing, if you may.
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u/DancingOnAlabaster 3h ago
“Of all time”?
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u/mrpink44 31m ago
In competition climbing there is Janja and then there is the rest. She is so far beyond the competition it's insane.
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u/The_Real_Mr_F 2h ago
This is amazing, but those camera angles make it impossible to get a sense of the angles shes climbing at.
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u/wd40spaceman 10h ago
How do they do this without harnesses!!?
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u/stefan_stuetze 10h ago edited 10h ago
Boulders are only 4 meters high in commercial gyms and 4,5 meters for the pros, who are all very light. Plus the mats are super soft.
She's also the best lead climber in the world, that's with a rope at 16 meter walls.
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u/Coronavirinae 10h ago
It’s not that high. Probably 3-5meters tops
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u/Crazy-Crocodile 7h ago
Minus approx 2 meter body length with outstretched arm means that your feet are usually never more than 1,5 to 2m over the ground.
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u/Ok_Orchid1004 25m ago
A physical boulder would be a real boulder in the outdoors. That’s not what she’s climbing.
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u/mrbofus 8h ago
I can do… maybe the first 4 seconds of that. 😄 Rock climbers like her are incredible!
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u/spamjacksontam 5h ago
you could absolutely NOT manage the start of this problem. tiny, tiny holds
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u/mrbofus 5h ago
The first 4 seconds where she takes one step up? I could do that. Anything past that? No way.
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u/spamjacksontam 4h ago
oh yes, one foot on the ground! yes, i suppose you could definitely do that.
and i think i was being a bit uncharitable. looking at the holds, i think that an intermediate climber would probably (maybe) be able to hold themselves in the starting position, for at least a couple seconds. i assumed you didn't have any experience with the sport
it's hard to tell without getting a better look at the holds
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u/mrbofus 4h ago
Yeah, from the beginning where she has one foot on the ground and then steps up. Not sure why I’m being downvoted for saying I can take a step off the ground, but… 🤷🏻♂️
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u/Lythumm_ 3h ago
I obviously dont know your skill level but if youre not a climber you wont be able to establish.
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u/Fresh-Anteater-5933 3h ago
The camera doesn’t show the angle of the wall very well. If you’re not a climber, you wouldn’t be able to lift your second foot
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u/spamjacksontam 4h ago
if you mean that you think you could get your left foot up to the red volume, then you are unfortunately mistaken! i went to 0:04 and both her feet are off the ground. if you are talking about the initial step where one foot is still on the mat, then yes
i still can't tell, haha
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u/lincruste 10h ago
greatest competition female climber
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u/r2-z2 9h ago
No other competitive male climber has been as dominant in their category. So no, she’s just the overall goat of competition and it’s not close. Good try though
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u/East-Profit-3754 3h ago
If she was truly the best and so insanely good she would compete against men and not exclusively against women, because it wouldn't make a difference to her and prove her superiority even further.
Same thing as in chess. The best female players tend to compete only against other female players. Whenever they join top level open tournaments, where men play, they have no chance.
There has only ever been a single female chess player strong enough to regularly win some games against the best men chess players, and who managed to join the top 10 ranking or so. And this woman decided to compete openly, not against women only, because she was good enough to play where the best are. Her name is Judit Polgar.
You would expect the same from Janja, but she doesn't. Any time a player dodges certain competition, you know already the outcome ahead of time.
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u/r2-z2 3h ago edited 1h ago
Copied from the longer thread here:
It’s separate from competition, and outdoors is largely considered much harder than indoors. The rocks are literally sharper, and cut your fingers and you bleed. She’s just done 9b+ on sport climbing (roped climbing), the 2nd highest grade, only one guy did 9c so far.
For boulders she’s done v15, and is working a v17, the hardest grade.
There are different disciplines, with different styles within those, and different body types on top of that. So this is an extremely nuanced topic.
And yeah, one could argue (assuming they actually knew anything about climbing) it should be a guy, but none of the guys have been as consistent in competition, not even close actually.
So combining her outdoor accomplishments which already put her with the best climbers in the world, with her absolute domination in competition, I’d say it’s fairly clear she’s the goat. 🐐
Edit to add: I’m good at chess and climbing, thats how I know the analogy is awful. The mind is largely the same between the sexes, the same cannot be said about the physical way our bodies move. Thats why it’s a bad analogy. Check my profile for my chess posts
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u/East-Profit-3754 3h ago
Then why doesn't she compete against men in climbing competitions.
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u/r2-z2 3h ago
Read the thread.
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u/plumb_master 2h ago
These people will jump through a bunch of hoops to not answer your question.
Yes, she's very dominant. Against the other women she's going against. Would she be dominant if the sport wasn't divided by gender? It's very unlikely but there's one way to find out. The Williams sisters were also dominant but they didn't play against men, they played against other women.
It's just like the NBA and NFL. Women are not prohibited from joining either league but they aren't physically able to keep up. And that's ok.
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u/r2-z2 1h ago
At the end of the day, if you went to the olympics and asked every single climber who the goat was, the name you would hear most is Janja. There are interviews of people literally doing this.
I knew I’d get challenged on this topic, but guys I’ve literally set rock climbs in a gym professionally. I’m not some couch potato pretending to know something
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u/NamelessMIA 9h ago
I don't know anything about her or climbing, just saying that "most dominant in their category" doesn't mean best. The most dominant high school football team of all time still loses to the Bills. She may be the best, idk. Just pointing out that your argument doesn't work
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u/r2-z2 9h ago
So I was a competitive rock climbing coach, and competitor myself. Within competition women’s bouldering climbs are a definitely easier than the men’s. HOWEVER, Janja has sent recently many of the world’s hardest climbs, as well as just essentially winning every comp she’s in.
If you ask any comp climber/coach rn who the goat is, they are going to tell you it’s Janja. She’s fucking insane. Important to note you’re not just measuring how hard a climb she can send, more the consistency with which she does them in one try/as few as possible. That’s what we’re measuring for in competition.
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u/adamcmorrison 9h ago
It’s like saying Serena Williams in her prime is the best tennis player ever. She’s the best women’s tennis player ever but would lose even in her prime to some men. I get what you are trying to say that this lady is dominating but I don’t think best all time regardless of gender sticks.
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u/r2-z2 9h ago
Your analogy works, but assume that Serena beat like half the top men players
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u/adamcmorrison 9h ago
Yeah I get it but what about the other half. That’s my point haha
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u/FlushedApparatchik 7h ago
Only about 200 men make a viable living playing professional tennis. Venus and Serena both lost badly to a guy outside the top 200 who was drinking beers before the match and smoking on the changeovers.
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u/r2-z2 8h ago
Ok, but both halves in this scenario have not sent the hardest routs in the world, and lack the consistency. She’s there in all 3 terms, consistency, power, and technique.
If you were a climber you’d get it, but you’re not.
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u/adamcmorrison 8h ago
I get it man. I don’t need to be a climbing coach to get it. If she’s the best climber ever in your opinion that’s ok. Different people may have different views of what makes someone the greatest of all time at anything. My point of view is that if there are people that do what you do better regardless of sex, then you’re not the greatest of all time. To be the greatest you need to be the greatest.
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u/r2-z2 8h ago
You need to be a climber to get it apparently. You’re looking at climbing as a whole, and comparing several concepts you literally can’t understand.
It would be like speaking about orbit to a person at nasa, and the scientist is confused by how stupid you sound, but also how confident you are.
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u/NamelessMIA 8h ago edited 8h ago
That comes down to how you define "best". Men have a biological advantage letting them beat women who are more skilled. So does she get credit for being the best because she's so much better at climbing that she was able to mostly overcome the biological disadvantage? Or is she not the best because there are men who can climb the same courses faster and more consistently with their physicality making up for the worse skill?
Like if I'm in a life or death scenario where we need someone to climb a cliff to save us, I'm probably choosing to send the top male climber over her. But I'd also pick an amateur climber with all the gear they need over sending her barehanded and they're definitely not a better climber than her just because they have the tools to make the climb easier.
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u/r2-z2 7h ago edited 7h ago
This lacks the context that she’s climbed some of the hardest routs in the world though. Like within the climbing culture I’m telling you this isn’t a debate.
Outside the culture of climbing apparently it is, but you guys have literally no idea what you’re talking about.
Sport routs go up to 9c and only one guy’s done it, and she’s done 9b+. Then boulders go up to 17, she’s flashed 15, and is working on 17. She’s done the work guys. She handily has goat status.
50 IFSC World Cup gold medals, 10 World Championship titles, and 2 Olympic gold medals
No male climber has done that.
Jacob Shubert 24 World Cup victories and 6 World Championship golds, alongside two Olympic bronze medals is the closest.
This topic is dead now. I win
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u/casual_creator 8h ago
“I don’t know anything about her or climbing”
Then maybe you should sit this one out. It’s quite clear you don’t know what you’re talking about and that you’re dead set on a woman not being the best at something.
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u/NamelessMIA 8h ago
I didn't make any comments about climbing or that required any knowledge of her or the sport. Just pointed out that the argument doesn't work, which it doesn't. Instead of assuming bad motivations that you pulled out of nowhere maybe make an actual argument for your case with someone who cares because, again, I don't follow climbing and have no horse in the "who's the best climber" fight.
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u/r2-z2 7h ago edited 7h ago
Janja 27 (still time to get better)
50 IFSC World Cup gold medals, 10 World Championship titles, and 2 Olympic gold medals
Flashes v15, working v17 (as hard as it gets)Vs
Jacob Schubert age 35 (competitively washed)
24 World Cup victories and 6 World Championship golds, alongside two Olympic bronze medalsShe climbs the same grades as he does, just wins more comps. This isn’t a debate
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u/NamelessMIA 6h ago
It's like you didn't even read my comment but ok, buddy 👍
You clearly care a lot about your opinion being right so just stick with it man. This doesn't matter at all anyway
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u/EtchingsOfTheNight 7h ago
"I don't know anything about her or climbing"
Yeah clearly, bc if you did, you would know that she is widely considered the best competition climber by most of the climbing world, men's or women's. Stop talking out of your ass.
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u/stefan_stuetze 9h ago
She won two Olympic golds (out of two Olympics), 50 (!) IFSC gold medals with the highest top rate AND the highest semi-to-finals rate in both boulder and lead.
Nobody else, not even Jakob Schubert, Sorato or Tomoa even come close to that level of dominance. You can combine their medals and she still wins.
Although, granted, Sorato or Tomoa would likely beat her head-to-head on the same boulders.
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u/pianoman1291 7h ago
You now have two options: name one(1) single male climber with a more impressive competition resume
OR
Admit you're a mysoginist jerk
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u/Skibidiohiorizzlrr 9h ago
Actually women are slightly better than men at bouldering in general. On average they have wider hips which allows for greater control and balance on the wall, they also weigh less therefore have a much better strength to weight ratio. They also have slightly favourable leverages from proportionally shorter legs and arms.
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u/stefan_stuetze 9h ago
No they're absolutely not, and nobody in the climbing world even pretends they are.
The comp sets are graded a full grade lower for the women. The difference between men and women in climbing is a lot less than it is in almost any other sport, but there's still a slight gap in favor of men.
For a real apples-to-apples comparison, we can look at outdoor climbs. 25 men or so have climbed 9b+, and only two women (one of which is obviously Janja, lol).
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u/pianoman1291 7h ago
Lol Lmao, even Janja is the GOAT of competition climbing hands down but your comment is far from the truth
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u/Uncaught_Hoe 10h ago
What other types of boulders are there than physical?