Athlete

Climbing in a beautiful location, the goal is not to power my way up but to become for that moment a part of the landscape, part of the rock.

Climbing is great, and I don't think I'll ever tire of it, because there are so many different disciplines.

The harder routes you climb, the more interesting the climbing gets and the more crazy moves you are forced to figure out.

It's really difficult to climb effortlessly.

Because grades in climbing are subjective, I am fan of making big gaps between climbing grades.

The Dawn Wall is so obviously the hardest big-wall climb in the world, so that was the challenge.

I think speed climbing is kind of an artificial discipline. Climbers compete on the same holds and train on the same holds, which doesn't have much in common with the climbing philosophy in my opinion.

I think climbing deserves to be an Olympic sport, as it is one of the few natural movements - like swimming or running, things that people have been doing for a thousand years.

I felt the strongest impulse to climb when I entered my first competitions.

I started climbing thanks to my parents, who have been going with me on the rocks since I was a baby.

There are way more powerful climbers compared to me but I think I can really take advantage of all my power due to my technique.

I think speed climbing is kind of an artificial discipline. Climbers compete on the same holds and train on the same holds, which doesn't have much in common with the climbing philosophy in my opinion.

I think it wouldn't be wise to lose the best years of my sports career at university.

My mother and father met through climbing and it was totally natural that I would become a climber too.

I've never had problems about passionate motivation to just keep climbing and keep training and pushing.

Climbing in a beautiful location, the goal is not to power my way up but to become for that moment a part of the landscape, part of the rock.

What really motivates me to climb harder and harder is not necessarily that I want to push my limits or show who's best, but climbing harder and harder routes makes it more fun.

For the Olympics, I'm mostly training in the gym, so I'm running laps on the standard speed wall.

Every December I take two or three weeks off. After an entire season of training and climbing, my body needs the break.

I don't really think about why I climb, I just simply love it.