How Harry Styles and Lady Gaga have made unlikely Olympic sport popular
It was the breakout event at Tokyo's Olympics, leaving an unacquainted TV audience captivated by its combination of strength, speed and unpredictability.
Now, as the Paris Games appear on the horizon, climbing has become one of the world's fastest-growing sports - and its biggest British star is urging anyone compelled by the action on screen to give it a go themselves.
For Shauna Coxsey, GB’s sole representative in Japan, the sport she fell in love with has transformed from a “niche” pursuit where “everyone looked and acted in the same way” to accessible for anyone eager to ascend.
The Association of British Climbing Walls (ABC) says the sport is growing by 20% a year and around a million people in the UK currently climb indoors each year. In the United States, the latest figures say about 12 million are actively involved and A-list celebrities such as Harry Styles, Lady Gaga and Brie Larson have professed their love for it.
And Coxsey, who retired as a professional after the high of Tokyo but remains part of Red Bull’s stable of climbers, says: “We’re at the point now where we have not only an opportunity to inspire but help people to aspire to do something.
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“There’s a huge difference between inspiration and aspiration. Climbing has the ability for people to aspire to do it themselves.” Not too long ago the UK’s major cities had one climbing gym but there are now several options in every conurbation.
Coxsey, a multiple medal winner at World Cups and World Championships, could see signs of growth before the Olympic unveiling but it proved an unsurprisingly rapid accelerant.
She finished 10th in Tokyo and describes it as “a magical moment for our sport but the beginning of something rather than the culmination.” But there were lessons to learn, areas to be improved upon. Not least how it is packaged for new and curious viewers.
Shauna Coxsey retired after the sport's debut at the Tokyo Olympics (Matthew Bird/Red Bull Content Pool)
Shauna Coxsey won multiple medals at World Cups and World Championship events“There were a lot of learnings around communicating the sport to a wider audience, how to make it more accessible,” she adds. “What is the language used around? What do the climbs look like? Who are the athletes? How are their stories told?
“There’s a lot of development needed to happen there. It’s a sport that is really accessible but there’s a lot of work that needs to be done to make it more inclusive. That work needs to continue to be done, as it should in every sport.
“I sit here as a professional climber but I saw it on TV for the first time and had no clue what it was. I have a great passion for how it’s communicated because that’s a really crucial position for us to be in as a sport, to find new audiences.”
One of its beauties lies in how the first-timer can share the same space as the world’s best. A grassroots footballer is not setting foot on the Wembley pitch but in climbing the same apparatus is shared.
The beauty of sport climbing rests in novices being able to compete on the same apparatuses as the world's best (Jake Thompson / Red Bull Content Pool)Coxsey adds: “I love that about climbing. If you were to come climbing with me and it was your very first time, we’d be climbing up the same wall. There’s no separation of elite over here, and beginner over there. It’s a sport you can do together regardless of your physical ability.”
In Paris sport climbing has been split into two disciplines - boulder and lead, and a new speed event - meaning double the medals. Coxsey plans to be there as a commentator and expects “it will be wild.” She finds it hard to tip a winner in the men’s categories this far out but all eyes in the women’s division will be trained on Janja Garnbret.
The Slovenian’s dominance is such that Coxsey thinks she is “the most successful athlete who has ever existed if you look at statistics between athletes in other sports.”
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And yet, like so many Olympic events, elite athletes remain reliant upon sponsorship deals. For Coxsey and many others including Garnbret, the reality is that without Red Bull’s investment, she would not have been able to pursue her dreams of becoming an Olympian.
“Working with bigger brands is the only reason I’ve had a career,” she says. “Red Bull are massively influential in the development of our sport. They are supporting athletes by allowing them to become professionals.
“If we didn't have Red Bull, we wouldn’t have professionals - especially in countries with little or no funding. Red Bull have supported me through so many different eras of my life- competition, injury, pregnancy and motherhood now.
“We’ve seen quite a shift in brands supporting athletes as individuals to allow them to succeed rather than supporting success. Red Bull have been the driving force behind that in terms of wanting to support an athlete as an individual.”
To find out more about Shauna Coxsey, head to her Red Bull athlete page here.
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