Where the Heck Does Janja Garnbret Go From Here?

Slovenia’s Janja Garnbret is just a few weeks removed from winning the Boulder & Lead Combined gold medal at the Paris Olympics. It was a performance that has already gone down as one of the most exciting and tenacious in the history of competition climbing. We caught up with Garnbret, amid her myriad international press obligations and celebratory meetings, to see where her head is at… and what’s next for her.

Climbing: The last time we talked, it was around this time after the Tokyo Olympics and I asked you how you were celebrating. You said you just wanted to go shopping for a pair of jeans with friends. How are you celebrating now—has there been any purchase bigger than a pair of jeans?

Garnbret: Not yet. I was mostly celebrating—they made a huge reception in my hometown—with the people that supported me since I was very little, since I started my career.

Climbing: Another thing you said three years ago was that you didn’t know where you were going to put the Tokyo Olympics gold medal. I’m guessing the Paris one is going to go next to the Tokyo one.

Garnbret: It’s going next to the Tokyo one. Right now, I’m building a house, so I need to find a good space for both of them.

Climbing: Adidas TERREX released the documentary series Janja Garnbret Unfiltered [see below] during the Paris Olympics, and in episode 2, you said that you didn’t feel the Paris Olympics pressure yet—but you knew a time would come when you would. When did you start feeling the pressure of the Paris Olympics, and what was that like?

Garnbret: I think three months before the Tokyo Olympics, I already felt the pressure building up every single day. It was really tough—it felt like a burden. But before Paris, a day before the qualis or the semi-finals—whatever you call it—I wasn’t stressed. So, I felt, like, “What’s going on? Why am I not stressing out?” But I felt maybe less pressure because I already had one gold medal; I was more relaxed coming into Paris. And I’d already had one Olympic experience. Plus, in those three years since Tokyo, I learned a lot about myself, and about training. I had an injury I had to come back from, but the training had been going really good, and I felt the strongest I’d ever been.

The first time that I felt pressure was in the finals. I wasn’t stressed in semis—it all went smooth; I really felt like I was super focused and never in my life have I believed in myself like I did in Paris. Not a single moment of doubt. I knew that I was ready. I was saying to myself, ‘You’ve got this; you trained hard for this; your body is ready; your mind is ready.’ I felt like I was a different person in Paris compared to Tokyo—of course, I was the same one, but the mentality was different.

Climbing: That’s interesting because I was wondering what your mindset was in between the semi-finals and the finals in Paris. You had a fantastic performance in the semi-finals: You flashed the first two boulders; the third boulder took you two attempts;the fourth boulder took you four attempts; and you fell reaching for the top hold on the lead route. After all that, were you trying to just mentally erase everything that just happened—because everybody starts over in the finals? Or were you somehow trying to take a confidence boost from the semis and carry that into the finals?

Garnbret: I kind of felt like I proved myself in the bouldering. Then I proved to myself that I was also ready in lead. Of course, we all know that in finals it doesn’t matter what happened in semis: We all start from zero. But I was like, “You know you are ready! Don’t let this opportunity slip away.”

It was important to me that, because I’m a perfectionist, you always want to give, every time, a little bit more. But I learned for the Olympics it’s important that you don’t do too little [and] you don’t do too much. You do your normal. So that was what I was telling myself: “Just do what you do in training, or like you do at every single World Cup.” So, my mentality in finals was to just be calm. Don’t panic. Don’t be frustrated. Just do your thing—and even if something comes up in between, like the potential finger injury, don’t let it affect you. Just react calmly to everything that happens.

Climbing: What happened with that finger injury on the fourth boulder in finals? It seemed like it maybe got stuck in the hold, and I remember watching and wondering how bad it was.

Garnbret: Yeah, it was the fourth boulder. The starting hold was actually blocked on the left side. And my fingers got kind of under the blocked hold, and when I was about to jump, my finger didn’t come off [the hold]—so, my hand actually didn’t come off. I was really scared at that moment because I could easily break a finger in that situation. But right after, I could move it. Actually, I almost finished the boulder on that try. But, yeah, after that, I could still move [the finger], so I knew it wasn’t broken. But I have to admit that I was crying quite hard after that boulder. But then my physio checked the finger. He said, ‘It’s not broken and the ligaments look fine.’ So, I could continue. But I felt some pain; some tension in my finger. But I said to myself that even if I climb without one finger, I will still go and climb that route because it’s the Olympics, the Olympics are every four years, and you really, really want to give 100 percent, no matter what.

Climbing: I would imagine after a finger injury like that, your emotions are high—you said you were crying—and there is probably an aspect of needing to get back to baseline. What do you do in that situation? How do you handle that?

Garnbret: Honestly, I have no idea. I have no idea how I handled it. But I knew that it wasn’t broken after my physio checked it. So when Roman [Garnbret’s coach] and I went to warm up, I knew that my finger was not seriously injured, so I knew I could continue. But I said to myself, ‘This is your chance; this is your day. Whatever happens, it will be OK.’ And, I guess I had to calm myself down, but more or less it was intense focus on that moment: I needed to warm up, and I wasn’t really frustrated, just focused.

You know, when you’re competing, adrenaline is there, so your mind is not on your finger but more on what’s coming up next. I knew I had trained super hard in lead, and I had made huge progress, so I knew that I was ready. And I just said to myself before I came out in front of the lead route, ‘You’ve got this…just do it like you do it in training.’ Those were the last words that I said to myself. And then I started the route super comfortably, and I just climbed—I can say I enjoyed it. I didn’t want the pressure to take the fun out of competing. I needed to remember why I started, and why I was doing this—it’s always because I love climbing, that’s why I do it.

Climbing: At the end of that lead route, when you were lowering down, it was an incredible moment. We saw the emotion come over you, and the first person to run over and congratulate you was Brooke Raboutou. That was interesting because it was also the person that you had just beaten for the gold medal, so I think it was a wonderful moment of camaraderie. Do you remember what was spoken between the two of you in that moment?

Garnbret: Me and Brooke have a special relationship. Of course, we share a passion for climbing, but we share, also, the same mentality on life and on training, and we love climbing so much. And I think it kind of just peaked these past years. We really support each other and respect each other as competitors. We are really good friends, also, outside of climbing.

I don’t remember what exactly I said, but I think it was—it was kind of our little wish, our little secret, to be on the podium together. We wanted it to happen in Tokyo, but it didn’t work out. So for Paris, we really wanted to be on the podium together. She was training with me in February. So, already in February I said, ‘This feels like a podium to me.” I think I said, “If someone deserves to be on the podium, it’s you,” and “We did it, together.” It was probably my favorite moment from the Olympics, that moment with Brooke.

Climbing:  I remember seeing videos of the two of you training together. I’m guessing you’ve probably been friends for a while, but your friendship has become more public lately. It certainly made for a special Olympic moment.

Garnbret: Yeah, it was really special. Like it was in Tokyo, that picture with Miho [Nonaka] and Akiyo [Noguchi], this situation with Brooke felt similar. It was really heartwarming. When I rewatched the finals later, I could see that Brooke was really happy for me—even if I beat her, she was rooting for me. And you don’t really see that in other sports. It’s really something special.

Climbing: There was also a recent video of you climbing in Fontainebleau—and back in 2022 you were famously projecting La Dura Dura. Are there more outdoor projects in your future?

Garnbret: Yeah, I do have a lot of projects in my mind—some bouldering, some lead—and, of course, I want to do them all, but there’s not enough time [laughs]. First, my next goal, I will be doing the World Cup in Koper. It’s a home competition, so I’ll be doing that. But after that, I will be more or less rock climbing. I haven’t really shaped in my head what my priority is or what I want to try first, but definitely something will be coming.

Climbing: Is there a possibility that you’ll take some time off of the World Cup circuit like you did after the Tokyo Olympics?

Garnbret: Yeah, I mean, me and Roman haven’t really shaped the plan yet for next year. I think it’s too soon to say; it’s right after the Olympics, and I need some time to decompress, to relax, and forget about training and competitions. Right now I want to focus more on rock climbing, to be in nature. There’s no time pressure [outside], no pressure at all—you just enjoy and just climb with friends. So, first that, and then I think probably towards the end of the year, so probably November, we will shape something for next year. It’s too soon to say.

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