20 May 2015

The kids are catching up

The first famous wonder kid was Chris Lindner who did his first 8a the day before he turned eleven, which was 20 years ago. Adam Ondra pushed that to 8a+ in 2003 but nowadays, these grades would in fact not have been sensational or newsworthy. Although we have seen a steady development for the kids over the years, it is actually just during the last years that wonder kids are everywhere. What is also interesting is that the girls are more or less equal to the boys until they are teenagers and in fact, the best youngster out there is 13 year old Ashima Shiraishi. Based on her tick list the last year, she is #1 among the females and within the Top-20 best male climbers. 8a has a policy to not publish ascents until the kids have turned teenagers if we have not received an OK from parents or their ascents are available on video. Based on info we are receiving, here are the new levels for being a world class kid climber. If the trend continues, you can add one grade for the routes the next year and in a couple of years, Ashima Shiraishi's and Adam Ondra's 9a record being 13 years old are most certainly broken. The picture is from Arco where the Youth World Championship will take place in September. 10 years: 8b route or 8A boulder 12 years: 8b+ & 8A+ 14 years: 8c & 8B 16 years: 8c+ & 8B+
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