Momentum: Sport climber Alannah Yip talks about strength in all its forms

Alannah Yip made her Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020–the first Olympic Games to feature sport climbing on the programme. She finished 14th in the women’s combined event, which, spoiler alert, no longer exists. More recently, at the Santiago 2023 Pan Am Games, Yip secured Canada’s first ever sport climbing medal at a major Games, taking bronze in the women’s boulder and lead event, a result that came after a tough post-Olympic stretch.

“I think I’ve learned a lot about myself in the last three years. It’s actually been quite a mental struggle for me since the last Olympics. I had all of this expectation that I put on myself. Now that I’m an Olympian, I should be this good. I should be doing this well in competitions. And there were, you know, a number of reasons why I was not doing that well. There were a couple of other things happening in my life that really crushed me mentally. I spent two full competition seasons, pretty much, being crushed, and every time I stepped onto the mats to compete, I was a mess,” Yip said on a recent episode of Momentum, a podcast by Team Canada.

“I did a lot of work mentally and I think it started to really show at the end of last season when I got a bronze medal at the Pan American Games. Besides the medal, I think the important thing to me was that I felt amazing climbing out there. I felt like myself. I was happy. I felt powerful.”

Beyond her commitment to the physical side of her sport, Yip has also frequently used her platform as one of the best-known climbers in the country to advocate for safe sport conditions, speaking out against the traditional “lighter is better” attitude that has persisted in climbing, often fostering a culture of body dysmorphia and disordered eating.

“Historically, the culture in climbing has been to reduce weight to get better at climbing. That misses the entire other side of that equation–that you can also get stronger to be better at climbing. Getting stronger is a lot healthier for you than just dropping weight. People do it in an uneducated way and from a place that their body doesn’t actually need or can afford to drop weight. So it turns into this very unhealthy obsession.” 

Those perspectives have helped inform her personal approach to her latest challenge–navigating a diagnosis of alopecia.

“Climbing has been probably the biggest part of my healing from [disordered eating during high school], because when I’m climbing, I feel strong and I feel powerful. I don’t feel, I don’t feel tiny or delicate. Climbing makes me feel alive, and it makes me feel strong,” said Yip.

During the early stages of her alopecia diagnosis, Yip needed to re-orient herself in that perspective of strength and vitality while climbing, as her hair loss infiltrated her headspace while at the climbing gym. 

“I was really afraid to go into the climbing gym. I wanted to wear a hat all of the time, or I wanted to keep my hair clipped up in a way that you couldn’t really see it. But I was not climbing the way that I can. I had it in the back of my head: “Oh, don’t move your head very fast, because your hat will fall off and then people will see.” It turns out that I’m the one who cares most about my hair.”

To listen to Alannah Yip’s full episode, check out Momentum wherever you get your podcasts.

READ: Sport climber Alannah Yip talks problem-solving on and off the wall