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Six months prior to the Olympics, Japan hold their first Bouldering Cup of the season. Kokoro Fujii and 17-year-old Ai Mori, barely made it to the finals as #6. Taking the advantage of starting first in the final with fresh holds and less pressure, Mori got a superior victory over Olympian Miho Nonaka. Among the male, Fujii had secured his win prior to the remaining five started on the last problem, as he had topped all four problems in just six tries. Olympian Tomoa Narasaki was second needed three attempts more.

1 - Kokoro Fujii 44 (6) - Ai Mori 44
2 - Tomoa Narasaki 44 (9) - Miho Nonaka 24
3 - Yoshiyuki Ogata 44 (12) - Futaba Ito

Interestingly, the other two Olympians, Akiyo Noguchi was #7 and Kai Harada was #6, scoring just two zones. #4 of the male was Youth World Champion from 2019, Sohta Amagasa who never has done a Boulder World Cup. The last few years, Japan has dominated the Bouldering scene, especially among the male. Video of the final.

Alex Puccio, one of the best female boulderers in the world the last twelve years, shares her terrible Covid-19 mental experience on Insta. "The thing that was the worse for me is the fact that I’m a hypochondriac and had the worse anxiety the whole time I had covid, thinking I was going to wake up one day and take a turn for the worse! :/"

Basically, she was isolated with her boyfriend for four weeks and after two weeks her anxiety developed into "terrible insomnia". After consulting some psychologists and also taking some meds she is slowly getting back on track. She comments to 8a;

"Right now I’m just climbing and running lightly a little. I have had about 6 days climbing for 1.5 hours each time so far. The third day back I was able to flash a lot of V9’s and flash a V11, think that one was A bit easy tho lol. I definitely think climbing is helping my anxiety a good bit tho. Just getting back o normal routine even if I don’t get any or a little sleep the night before. Still doing my normal stuff helps my mind and try to forget or not care about the tiredness and so not stress oversleep."

It should be mentioned that Alex, although having had several climbing accidents, forcing her to take long physical recovering periods, has done 222 boulder 8A and harder, which is superior of the female. She has also gotten silver in the World Championship. Getting an OK for sharing her story she also says that her Insta comments part is important to. "We all need help from time to time and it’s ok to ask for it!!!! Seeing Psychologist and Dr.’s does not make you weak, it actually shows courage and strength! Asking for help is powerful!!! 🙏💪🏻"

Asking if she really is ok for sharing the hospital picture she sent over, she answers."The one in the hospital is from a week or so ago when my anxiety and sleep deprivation were at a HIGH and so my panic made me want to go to the hospital. In which I was fine, they gave me some anti-anxiety meds. If it’s in good context and making it clear that I wasn’t in the hospital at all due to covid, but way after covid was gone and it’s from my extreme anxiety and panic attacks I was getting.

If that is made clear then I don’t mind. Mental health is a real thing and I have always had anxiety, but the 2 weeks or less of covid I had a fight or flight mindset. I thought I would wake up one day and just make a turn for the worse. Being anxious every day, even tho my covid experience with symptoms was not that bad, then causes me to develop insomnia. Then when the covid was gone and my insomnia was there I worries and got really anxious about that. Thinking about when I will sleep again and will I ever sleep again. This is where therapy is helping a lot of abs connecting with others that have dealt with anxiety-induced insomnia for a long time shows you are not alone or going mad. Lol"

Mia Krampl came into 2019 as one of the best youth climbers with several Championship podiums. Then, she achieved her best results ever by getting the silver in both the Lead Euro and World Championships. Later, the 19-year-old did it again by qualifying to the Olympics in Toulouse in a spectacular way.

First, she was #7 out of the 8 finalists in both Speed and Boulder. Then, first out in Lead, she made it 3/4 up the routes. Later, four girls came one hold short meaning she won Lead and got the Olympic ticket, surprisingly, just ahead of her Slovenian teammate, Lucka Rakovec. (c) Tristan Hobson

How was that finish just beating your training partner Lucka?
Try to imagine how it feels to take you best friend's biggest dreams away... Well, that is how I felt. I am so lucky that Lucka has such a powerful personality and that she reacted the way she did. She didn't hate me for what happened, she was really supportive instead and that is why our friendship means so much to me. If you are following the world cups you probably already realized how different our climbing styles are. The best thing about this is that we can learn from each other, observe and try to repeat the moves the way other has done it. And the training process is way funnier if the company is good!

How has your training preparation towards the Olympics been?
Training in 2020 went pretty well. Looking back on the past year, I have to admit I had some hard times where I wasn't motivated as I should be due to the lack of competitions and challenges or because I wanted to make progress in my disadvantages. Training only things you are bad at is sometimes mentally hard. I needed to stay focused on my goals and trust the plan! It was a weird year but that doesn't mean I didn't like it. I have learnt a lot about myself and I enjoyed the training process.

To find some challenges despite cancelled competitions, I went to rocks a few times and challenge myself in a different way. I even did my first 8b. I have spent the year training boulders, short routes and speed. Training plan for the start of this year is pretty similar. I will add some endurance training in the next months. The most important part of the training plan in to trust the plan and give 300% in!

I train 4 to 5 times a week. My teammates are Anže Peharc, Lucka Rakovec and Andrej Polak. We usually train in groups of 2-4 athletes. I also have condition training once or twice a week where I am focusing on the lower body part. My speed is still in progress. Right now my PB is 10.32 but I want to be faster. I still have some time! 🤞🏻I do one speed training a week and my goal is to make as much progress as I can until this summer!

What are your competition plans during 2021?
I didn't make exact plans which competitions I will attend yet, but I can already tell I will skip all World cups that don't take place in Europe, at least until the Olympics. I will make further plans later. It all depends on how I will feel after the Olympic Games and how tired I will be. There is a lot of training and hard work in the plan until that!

Will you do any specific training for the heat in Tokyo?
No, I don't plan any specific training for hot conditions that will be challenging us in Tokyo. Even Slovenian summers are pretty hot so this year we won't use any air conditioning and this will be my preparation for Tokyo's heat. (Just kidding!)

Who are the strongest contenders for gold in your opinion?
Hmmm... I wouldn't dare to announce the Olympic gold medallists. There are so many good climbers and it is so hard to predict what will happen especially in a combined format.

Alexey Rubtsov won the Bouldering World Championship in 2009 and last December he qualified to the Olympics by winning the Euro Championship in Moscow. Interestingly, he could not participate in the World Championship in 2019, due to a shoulder injury from which he was not fully recovered until last fall. He did not do any real preparation before Moscow and no speed or lead training whatsoever. Last week he was in Turkey with the Russian national team where he did an 8C in Geyikbayırı, video on his Insta.

How do you train to prepare for the Olympics?
At the moment, my training program is completely different from what I have done before. After a shoulder injury, I constantly reduce the volume of strength exercises, and since May 2020, I practically do not do them at all. Now my program is aimed at long-term improvement (it might seem a little silly at my 32 years old :) I try to make my body healthier, improve flexibility and agility. I can feel my climbing style changing, my position on the wall and I like it. For now, I will continue to work in this direction. Even if I have now become weaker in strength indicators (for example, 2 years ago I could pull up on 1 arm 15 times, now 2-3), but still in the fall I was able to win two Russian Championships and the European Championship.

In general, as usual, I am looking for new training solutions to climb better. I climb together with Nikolai Yarilovets and Sergei Luzhetskii 3-5 times a week for 3-4 hours. I have everyday mobility and stretching training on the floor for 1-1,5 hour. I also do martial arts 2-3 times a week. I cannot say how many percent of my schedule will be bouldering, how much lead, how much speed, since I don't know it myself :) and I see no reason to control it. Nevertheless, I admit that maybe I will return some exercises to the strength of the fingers on the fingerboard if I start to feel very weak :)


In which comps do you plan to participate as preparation and what is your goal for the Olympics?
4 WC's in bouldering, 1 in lead and maybe no in Speed :) Tokyo is just competition and in competition, everything can happen. I hope to show good climbing:) About speed, I don’t like this discipline and I don’t have a big training plan for it. I didn't train it last year, so I have only comp time 7.3 in 2020 as PB.

Brooke Raboutou, who has qualified to Tokyo, has done Hungry Hungry Hippos 8A+ in @@Red Rock. "Whoohoo I was hungry for the hippos! Some weird but cool movement into a 5 star V9 makes for a nice climb! Was quite the adventure bringing the pup up the cactus filled hike, but she enjoyed seeing the canyon from above :)"

In total, the 19-year-old has now done 23 boulders 8A+ during the last year and she is #3 in the 8a ranking game.

Based on almost 2 000 unique votes in our "Best temperature for hard bouldering?" poll, we can conclude that the boulderers like it pretty chilly. In brackets the results from the 2018 poll shows very similar results.

06 % Below freezing (5 % in 2018)
31 % Around 4 °C (32 %)
36 % Around 8 °C (33 %)
16 % Around 12 °C (17 %)
11 % I enjoy the sun (12 %)

Michael Piccolruaz qualified to the Olympics by finishing #14 in the World Championship in August 2019. During the last five years he has been studying and training in Innsbruck where he, for the last 3.5 years, has shared apartment with Jakob Schubert. Now he is just one exam away from his Bachelor degree in Geology. Since Covid-19 emerged, he has mainly been studying and training at home in Val Gardena in the Dolomites.

How do you plan your last six months of Olympic preparation?
Well as for now the preparations are focused on getting fit for the bouldering season. It will be important to do a few comps again before the Olympics, especially after not doing any for so long. I'm not entirely sure which Boulder world cups I will do but for sure those in Europe. Hand in hand with the boulder preparation goes Speed training. Most definitely I will also start all the Speed World Cups which are taking place together with the bouldering world cups. They are the best training we can have. Before the season starts it would be cool to go to Japan for a training camp for about 10 days but unfortunately with the current situation that might be difficult.

Unfortunately, the gym in Innsbruck is closed for everybody but the Austrian national team, so I haven't climbed with Jakob (Schubert) since November, which is very unfortunate. So now I'm training back home in South Tyrol, but I hope the gym in Innsbruck will open as soon as possible again. New boulder problems are something I am definitely missing most from my training in Innsbruck. We train in small gyms now and we do not have the chance to regularly climb on new comp style boulders, however, as the gyms are closed right now and only we athletes can go in I sometimes bring along my makita (drill) and set a few specific moves (slabs, jumps...) for myself. That is really helpful. Hopefully, we will also have some national training camps in the future

Right now I normally train 5 days a week with mostly double sessions. Twice I train Speed, the rest is Bouldering training. I now sometimes train with Filip Schenk as he lives in the same small village as I do. It's good to have somebody to train with and share motivation. Alone it would definitely be harder. I do have a trainer who writes me my training plans and regularly checks in on how I am doing. With the season going on we will then start to insert some lead training, however, it is not gonna be too much since I always feel that a lot of Lead training is not good for my bouldering and speed performance.

Do you do any specific speed training? What is your PB?I don't do specific leg training for speed. But when I am in the gym I always do one or two exercises for my legs in general. Good leg muscles are also good for preventing injuries. My personal best in speed is 6:65. My goal would be reaching a time under 6:30.

What about getting stronger legs from ski-touring?
It is Amazing right now. I go once or twice a week, on the rest days basically. It's between 1000 and 1800 meters of altitude up to 7.5 hours of walking.

What is your goal for the Olympics? Any specific plans due to the Combined multiplication format?
My goal for the Olympics will be making finals. From there on everything is possible and it will really depend on the shape on the competition day, and mostly also the setting style. I will leave lead a bit behind and focus to have the best bouldering and speed shape.