Janja Garnbret took Gold this weekend in her second tournament back after her break due to a toe injury. She had a very emotional final boulder, it was an almost impossibly good tournament for her. As the greatest female climber of all time, the pressure is immense. Every time she gets on stage she performs at the highest level. It is not just her peaks that make her incredible, it is her incredible consistency. No one was quite sure how good she would be after her long break, and many were wondering if the era of Janja’s dominance was over after she finished second in Prague.
As it turns out, rumors of Janja’s demise were greatly exaggerated.
It must be so hard to set a competition with Janja in it. You want to be able to challenge her but doing so might make the climbs too hard for the rest of the competitors. In this final she got to the top of all four problems in one try (called flashing).
She’s such a dominant climber.
For greater historical context, Janja Garnbret had taken off the entirety of 2022 from pro climbing in order to get a break from the pressure. She holds herself to immensely high standards, it is not just enough for her to win nearly every single event she participates in, but she must do every climb perfectly. She is an incredible competitor and everyone has been waiting for her return with baited breath. This tournament was a statement from her, she not only won, she dominated in a rare fashion. She completed every single one of the final boulders in one try, this is an incredibly rare feat. The next best athlete on the field, Natalia Grossman, took 2-3 tries on all the other boulders, and could not complete the final boulder at all.