ALEX MEGOS, TALKING OLYMPICS

Alex Megos from Erlangen (GER) is one of the best German sport climbers.

He was Vice European Bouldering Champion in 2017, Vice World Lead Champion in 2019 and won his first Lead World Cup in Briançon (FRA) in 2018. He has also made a name for himself in rock climbing with extremely fast repetitions of numerous difficult routes. He was the first German climber to qualify for the 2020 Games. In our interview, he talks about the new “Olympic Combined format, a mixture of the three disciplines Speed, Bouldering and Lead, as well as the mental aspects of the sport.

Can you explain the differences between bouldering, lead and speed climbing?

And which, for you, is the most difficult? Bouldering is sometimes described as the purest form of climbing. It is climbing without a rope on boulders or walls up to a height of around 4m. The individual moves in bouldering are very hard compared to the other disciplines, but in general a boulder only has up to 10 moves. When you fall off a boulder there are matts (indoors) or socalled crash pads (outdoors) underneath the boulder to lower the impact.

Lead climbing is the discipline which most people would refer to when they say climbing. You climb on rocks, cliffs, indoor walls and you are climbing on a rope. So in case of a fall the belayer will catch your fall through the rope. Normally indoor walls are around 15m high and a route in a competition has around 40 to 50 moves. The individual moves are not as hard as in bouldering, but the length of the climbs are challenge. The more moves you do the more pumped you get in your forearms. Lactic acid in your forearms are normally the reason for why you fall on a lead climb whereas in bouldering the reason normally is that the moves are too hard or in case of a competition you don't find the right sequence of holds to climb the boulder.