Climbing World Champions 1991 - 2009

Ever wondered who won the first-ever official UIAA Sport Climbing World Championship? Most would hedge their bets on François Legrand and they wouldn't be disasppointed as for three events in a row - from 1991 to 1995 - the Frenchman proved simply unbeatable. But, tell the truth, would you have remembered that silent Swiss powerhouse Susi Good dominated the first two events? And did you realise that despite its popularity, the first bouldering World Championship took place a mere 10 years ago? Won by Italian Mauro Calibani in 2001 and by his teammate Christian Core two years later. And did you realise that Dani Andrada, best known for his 9a testpieces and his vital role in developing sport climbing in Spain, raced to success to won Speed World Championship in Paris in 1997?

In the run-up to the IFSC Climbing World Championship 2011 scheduled for mid July in the Italian town Arco we thought it interesting to take a step back into competition climbing history and examine who has left their mark. A glance at the table below reveals who won gold, silver and bronze and what is striking is that - so far - no athlete has managed to bridge the gap and win at least two disciplines, despite valiant efforts by the likes of Sandine Levet, Akiyo Noguchi and Tomas Olesky to name but three.

Notable for their lack of World Championship victory are undisputable all-time greats sucha s Lynn Hill (she only competed in the first event in Frankfurt and placed 5th), Alexandre Chabot and more recently Kilian Fischhuber, the man who more than anyone else has dominated the Bouldering World Cup series. But as everyone knows, the World Championship is a one-off event, where a mistake costs dearer than in the World Cup series and can only be corrected two years down the line. This is why for most athletes Arco 2011 is the absolute top of their competition agenda, and their preparations have been in full swing for quite a while. Their dream is to add their names to the list of winners below.

LEAD			BOULDER		SPEED
2009 Qinghai (China)
1.	Patxi Usobiaga Lakunza ESP	Johanna Ernst AUT	Alexey Rubtsov RUS	Yulia Abramchuk RUS	Qixin Zhong CHN	Cuilian He CHN
2.	Adam Ondra CZE	Jain Kim KOR	Rustam Gelmanov RUS	Olga Shalagina UKR	Alexandr Nigmatulin KAZ	Cuifang He CHN
3.	David Lama AUT	Maja Vidmar SLO	David Barrans GBR	Anna Stöhr AUT	Ivan Novikov RUS	Chunhua Li CHN
2007 Aviles (Spain)
1.	Ramon Julian Puigblanque ESP	Angela Eiter AUT	Dmitry Sharafutdinov RUS	Anna Stöhr AUT	Qixin Zhong CHN	Tatiana Ruyga RUS
2.	Patxi Usobiaga Lacunza ESP	Muriel Sarkany BEL	Martin Stranik CZE	Akiyo Noguchi JPN	Manuel Escobar VEN	Edyta Ropek POL
3.	Tomas Mrazek CZE	Maja Vidmar SLO	Cédric Lachat SUI	Olga Bibik RUS	Sergey Sinitsyn RUS	Valentina Yurina RUS
2005 Munich (Germany)
1.	Tomas Mrazek CZE	Angela Eiter AUT	Salavat Rakhmetov RUS	Olga Shalagina UKR	Evgeny Vaytsekhovsky RUS	Olena Ryepko UKR
2.	Patxi Usobiaga Lacunza ESP	Emily Harrington USA	Kilian Fischhuber AUT	Yulia Abramchuk RUS	Maksym Styenkovyy UKR	Valentina Yurina RUS
3.	Alexandre Chabot FRA	Akiyo Noguchi JPN	Gérome Pouvreau FRA	Vera Kotasova-Kostruhova CZE	Sergey Sinitsyn RUS	Edyta Ropek POL
2003 Chamonix (France)
1.	Tomas Mrazek CZE	Muriel Sarkany BEL	Christian Core ITA	Sandrine Levet FRA	Maksym Styenkovyy UKR	Olena Ryepko UKR
2.	Patxi Usobiaga Lacunza ESP	Emilie Pouget FRA	Jérôme Meyer FRA	Nataliya Perlova UKR	Tomasz Oleksy POL	Tatiana Ruyga RUS
3.	David Caude FRA	Sandrine Levet FRA	Tomasz Oleksy POL	Fanny Rogeaux FRA	Alexander Peshekhonov RUS	Valentina Yurina RUS
2001 Winterthur (Switzerland)
1.	Gérome Pouvreau FRA	Martina Cufar SLO	Mauro Calibani ITA	Myriam Motteau FRA	Maksym Styenkovyy UKR	Olena Ryepko UKR
2.	Tomas Mrazek CZE	Muriel Sarkany BEL	Frédéric Tuscan FRA	Sandrine Levet FRA	Vladimir Zakharov UKR	Mayya Piratinskaya RUS
3.	François Petit FRA	Chloé Minoret FRA	Christian Core ITA	Nataliya Perlova UKR	Tomasz Oleksy POL	Svetlana Sutkina RUS
1999 Birmingham (Great Britain)
1.	Bernardino Lagni ITA	Liv Sansoz FRA			Vladimir Zakharov UKR	Olga Zakharova UKR
2.	Yuji Hirayama JPN	Muriel Sarkany BEL			Vladimir Netsvetaev RUS	Olena Ryepko UKR
3.	Maksym Petrenko UKR	Elena Ovtchinnikova USA			Alexei Gadeev RUS	Natalia Novikova RUS
1997 Paris (France)
1.	François Petit FRA	Liv Sansoz FRA			Daniel Jimenez Andrada ESP	Tatiana Ruyga RUS
2.	Chris Sharma USA	Muriel Sarkany BEL			Yevgen Kryvosheytsev UKR	Irina Zaytseva RUS
3.	François Legrand FRA	Marietta Uhden GER			Dmitri Bytchkov RUS	Olga Bibik RUS
1995 Genève (Switzerland)
1.	François Legrand FRA	Robyn Erbesfield USA			Andrey Vedenmeer UKR	Natalie Richer FRA
2.	Arnaud Petit FRA	Laurence Guyon FRA			Milan Benian CZE	Cecile Avezou FRA
3.	Elie Chevieux SUI	Liv Sansoz FRA			Vladimir Netsvetaev RUS	Renata Piszczek POL
1993 Innsbruck (Austria)
1.	François Legrand FRA	Susi Good SUI			Vladimir Netsvetaev RUS	Olga Bibik RUS
2.	Stefan Glowacz GER	Robyn Erbesfield USA			Serik Kazbekov UKR	Isabelle Dorsimond BEL
3.	Yuji Hirayama JPN	Isabelle Patissier FRA			Yevgen Kryvosheytsev	Renata Piszczek POL
1991 Frankfurt (Germany)
1.	François Legrand FRA	Susi Good SUI			Hans Florine USA	Isabelle Dorsimond BEL
2.	Yuji Hirayama JPN	Isabelle Patissier FRA			Jacky Godoffe FRA	Agnès Brard
3.	Guido Köstermeyer GER	Robyn Erbesfield USA			Kairat Rakhmetov KAZ	Venera Chereshneva RUS