Jain Kim Interview

Could you please give me some background on your early days in climbing and how you got into the competition scene?
I first began sport climbing when I was 12. My parents like mountains and hiking and my two older brothers (Jaha, Jabee) are sport climbers too, so I was influenced by my family the most and naturally started climbing walls with my brothers.
I felt passionate in this sport and my brothers started going to sport climbing competitions as professional climbers, so I wanted to follow their steps and travel around the world to all kinds of different cities and compete with other climbers.

How do you train?
I train five days a week, five or six hours per day. I usually challenge myself and try to grab holds that are far away from my normal reach so that I can overcome my abilities and get used to the far holds in competition routes.

What is your plan for the winter and for 2012?
Now that the season is over, I will have some rest for two or three weeks (eat as much as I want!!). After that, I'll go back to my daily routine and practice climbing again and do some weight training. I'm currently a senior at Korea University and this is my last semester so I have to study hard for the final exams. I will graduate in February and attend graduate school in March to study more about sports psychology. I always say my goal is to complete all routes in a competition so in 2012 I'll train very hard to climb well and accomplish my goal.

Any thoughts on improving the competition format?
I know this is not easy, but I wish the route setters set the routes so that they match the relative difficulty level of each round (easy qualifications, medium-difficulty semi-final, hard final round) because climbers train rally hard to complete challenging routes. Also, I think it would be fun to see the superfinals come back so that not only myself but other climbers can get an extra chance to challenge themselves with the wall.