![]() ![]() (Photo: Lena Drapella/IFSC)Ī late addition to the World Cup roster. Mori Ai of Japan battled Garnbret in Lead, taking gold with Garnbret settling for silver. Grossman's utter dominance was perhaps the most surprising story of the whole year, in the best way possible. In fact, she ended up winning every Boulder event after the Meiringen World Cup, but more remarkably, made a lot of fans forget about Garnbret's absence completely. By the numbers, Grossman became " American climbing royalty" when she notched back-to-back annual wins at the Salt Lake City World Cups. Much credit is due to Team USA's Natalia Grossman, who not only filled the void of Garnbret's absence from a performative level, but became a marquee name in her own right as the Boulder season progressed. Garnbret's abrupt absence from the competition circuit left a void and had the bizarre effect of making her an even bigger talking point by not even being at World Cups. But there's no denying that Garnbret is the World Cup circuit's biggest star, the marquee name that conjures up comparisons to Serena Williams, Michael Phelps, Simone Biles, Michael Jordan, and other all-time climbing greats. "Garnbret deserves credit for having the self-awareness and willingness to act when more rest and self-care is needed," Climbing reported at the time. Of course, nobody is criticizing her decision to take that hiatus, particularly since she hinted at it being a matter of her mental health. Moments after winning that first event of the 2022 season, Garnbret announced she'd be taking a break from future World Cup events-and that's exactly what she did she remained absent from competition for three months. (Photo: Jan Virt / IFSC)īut then, suddenly, those feelings of normalcy got up-ended. Janja Garnbret cuts loose at the 2022 Meiringen World Cup, where she took first place. Additionally, and best of all, the lingering pandemic felt more manageable, and competitors were (presumably) anxious and excited to return to a full and robust World Cup loop once again. And the next year, 2021, saw many World Cup competitors participating only in a fraction of events before diverting from the World Cup circuit to the postponed Tokyo Olympics.Īh, but this season, 2022, was going to be different! There were no Olympics to distract and divert anyone's attention-fans or media or competitors alike-nor any sort of Olympic qualification pathway to disrupt the World Cup proceedings. The following year, 2020, had the wrong kind of drama with the onset of the COVID-19 global pandemic and the resultant cancellation of the World Cup season (except for a singular, strange event in Briancon). But most importantly for the discussion at hand, 2019 delivered a full plate of events, with consistent rosters and just the right dose of good drama for the entirety of the season. That year was full of historic stories (Slovenia's Janja Garnbret sweeping the Boulder season) and surprises (South Korea's Chaehyun Seo bursting onto the scene as a rookie and winning four events). One could make a case for 2019-three years ago-being the last time an IFSC World Cup season felt normal. This article originally appeared on Climbing ![]()
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