As climbing grows in popularity, especially for women, there’s a lot of discussion around the role it can play in female empowerment. Do you feel empowered when you climb?

I’ve climbed my whole life, so for me it’s just such a natural thing to do. I climb the way I want to and I’m in no way restricted because I’m a woman. I choose my own way through each climb, and I’m confident in my ability and process to get to where I want to be. I wouldn’t say I feel empowered when I’m climbing, because I just feel like me, which in itself is very empowering.

How do you feel about being widely described as the face of UK climbing? Has this changed your experiences at the wall or at the crag? 

I am fortunate in that I was not an overnight success. My success within climbing has grown as climbing [as a sport] has grown. It’s always been consistent in the development of me as a person – and of me as an athlete. My coaching and management team has always helped me figure out what my values are and where I want to take my climbing, personally and professionally. As my career’s progressed I’ve been very conscious of the role I play, and I do not take that responsibility lightly. I work hard to ensure that our sport presents a welcoming environment for everyone. We, as a community, need to keep pushing for accessibility and inclusivity. I decided from a young age that this side of the sport was just as important to me as the performance side.

As someone who has been climbing since the age of four, have you ever experienced the barriers that many other women speak of when it comes to accessibility? 

Before I was pregnant, I didn’t face the same barriers. That’s why I set up the Symposium, because my experiences were so different from that of what I was hearing from other women who were coaching or climbing at the time. These were things I hadn’t contemplated and I was oblivious to the barriers that existed in the sport, but yet they were so present for so many different women – and they still are.

Every year I walk away from the Women’s Climbing Symposium feeling so incredibly inspired, even though I never felt like I personally needed that dedicated women’s-only space – I still always benefit from it.

The Symposium sells out every year. It’s an event that women want. Every year we send out a feedback form and ask if participants want women’s only events to continue and the feedback is always 100% yes. When we ask why, there are always endless different answers. All the reasons that come back make this event and these dedicated spaces so important. The fact that there’s not just one reason, but so many different ones, makes them even more important.

Now it’s interesting for me, because I’m pregnant and I need to look to other women for inspiration, guidance, and collective knowledge for how to go through this journey. Now suddenly I’m like, ‘Oh I get it now, I need other women.’

“We live on the circuit for so many months of the year, we’ve seen each other go through hard times – through injury and breakups – through life”

What advice do you have for people who want to try climbing but experience imposter syndrome when they show up at the wall or the crag? 

Share your honest emotions with the people you’re with. I am exactly the same if I go to a skatepark. I get really overwhelmed, but as soon as I confide in my friends and tell them, they help me. Often it’s when we don’t communicate that people assume we’re fine, and then we can get left behind.

In the past I couldn’t relate to it from a climbing perspective, but now being five months pregnant I don’t climb the way I used to. So, it’s different for me. Someone recently said to me ‘You really look like Shauna Coxsey.’ I think it was because I backed off a climb, because obviously being pregnant, I’m not falling at the moment, but in their head they thought that Shauna wouldn’t have backed off that climb.

The Wall – Climb For Gold, is an astonishing and inspiring insight into what it takes to be an Olympian, and indeed what it means to be human. Although the four climbers featured – you, Janja, Brooke, and Miho all identify as women, how do we make sure people know that this is a film for everyone, not just women and young girls? 

No one thinks films featuring just men, like the Formula 1 documentary, are just for men to watch. Surely, we’re at a point now where you can look beyond the fact that we are women and see us as athletes. Janja is the most incredible competition athlete, arguably beyond any sport, male or female. This is a film about female climbers, yes, but there are so many ways in which men can connect with women, so long as men are open to connecting to women.

Last year you announced your retirement from competitive climbing to focus on rock climbing. Congratulations! I’m so excited for you to return to the crag. What are you most looking forward to conquering and why? 

With rock climbing, the thing I’m looking most forward to is having options and not knowing what it is that I want to do. To have so much there waiting for me is exciting. With competitions you are so restricted, and you have to perform on that day, at that time, regardless of how you feel, how you slept or what your conditions are. You are always on a schedule and when you come back after the season, you’re straight back on the grind – it’s constant and so regimented. With rock climbing I will have the freedom to decide exactly when I want to go climbing – if the little one plays ball of course. It’s having that freedom and opportunity to choose what my projects are and be in control of those decisions. I always knew that I wanted to compete and that I wanted to do that while I was able and psyched, but at the same time I always knew that I wanted to rock climb too, so I can’t wait for this new journey.

Climbing while pregnant is not the controversial topic it once was. Have you had any heated discussions on this yet? 

I’ve had a lot of people comment and say I shouldn’t be climbing but, for me, I am more comfortable on the wall climbing easy stuff than I am walking down the street. Climbing is my world and I know how to climb safely. Post-games I wasn’t falling anyway because of my knee injury, so I was taking no impact then and I’ll continue to take no impact until after the baby. This is my decision and I’m climbing within my limits, with guidance from a women’s health physio. I’ve never considered stopping climbing and I’ll eventually stop when my body tells me to. I’m fortunate to be a professional athlete and know how to listen to my body. I feel so much better when I am climbing than when I’m not, so it makes no sense for me to stop right now.

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The Wall – Climb For Gold is available to buy now from Amazon Prime, Google Play and Apple TV.

Watch the trailer for The Wall – Climb For Gold here.

Photos courtesy of adidas.

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Lyndsay McLaren is the founder of Neighbourhood Skate Club.

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