Destivelle: Winning but hating competitions

Catherine Destivelle was the first female rock star and was considered #1 sport climber during the late 80-ies and then she continued during the 90-ies with groundbreaking mountaineering ascents. Here is a documentary with the "Rock Queen. Now she is working as a publisher and her latest book is The 9th grade, 150 years of free climbing. On the picture by Uli Weissmeier she is together with Lynn Hill, whom she actually beat most of the times. How did you like comps and why did you stop so quickly? I have never enjoyed climbing competitions. The first time I took part in a competition, I just wanted to know what it would be like because until then no competitions had ever taken place in Western Europe. My friends encouraged me to take part, they said I couldn't say I hated competitions until I had actually tried. That's why I entered the first international climbing competition which took place on a natural rockface in Bardonnecchia, Italy. Taking part in a competition was really stressful for me. Why? To be honest, I was afraid of measuring myself against the others, afraid of losing. I had never competed and I was reputed to be one of the best French climbers; if I lost, my pride would be hurt. At the end of the day, despite the stress, the competition turned out to be a positive challenge. I won: I came first in everything! At the time, there were three prizes: style, speed and difficulty. Thanks to this outcome, I got several sponsors and I was able to stop working as a physiotherapist and spend all my time climbing.   I didn't consider taking part in other competitions because, above all, I found them stressful. I wanted to climb mountains. Unfortunately this ambition was rapidly jeopardized by a foolish 35 meter fall down a crevasse. I broke my pelvis and my spine and I was lucky to be alive. However, I was weakened by these injuries and I didn't feel strong enough to go back to the mountains.   As the media still presented me as the best woman climber in the world, I felt like I needed to go back to competing. I needed to prove them right, to justify whether it was true. So I returned to compete in Bardonnechia the following year, intent on winning. During that year, I worked hard to build up my strength again. My great rival was going to be Lynn Hill. I thought she was the only one who could beat me. In order to win, I studied the rules of the competition. Speed was still part of the criteria to win. I bet on that, and I won. Phew !... After that, I took part in very few competitions.