Anna Stöhr world champion climber retires from bouldering competitions

One of the world’s most successful competition climbers, 30-year-old Austrian boulderer Anna Stöhr, officially bid farewell to climbing competitions last week. After serving her apprenticeship in the youth competitions, Stöhr burst onto the senior scene in 2004 when as a mere 16-year-old she was crowned Vice European Bouldering Champion in Lecco, Italy. From that moment on she dominated bouldering competitions like few others, garnering with her devastating mix of power, technique, determination and savoir-faire a track record over the next decade that has no equals: she was crowned World Champion twice (Arco 2011 and Avilés 2007), she won the European Championship in 2010 and 2013 and, just as impressively, won the overall Bouldering World Cup in 2008, 2011, 2012 and 2013 with total of 22 world cup wins, 13 silver and 10 bronze medals.

Stöhr’s domination of bouldering competitions was nigh absolute - so much so that she was awarded the prestigious Arco Rock Legends accolade in 2012 - and in some respects her career can be compared to two others of Austria’s golden age of athletes, namely Angela Eiter and Kilian Fischhuber. Eiter won four Lead World Championships, one European Championship and the Lead World Cup three times before retiring in 2013, while Fischhuber retired from competitions a year later after having won a staggering five Bouldering World Cups, gold in the 2013 European Championships and silver in the World Championships in 2005 and 2012. It is with Fischhuber, her life partner, that Stöhr shares one of her fondest competition memories, a tandem win of the Innsbruck stage of the 2012 World Cup. Competing in front of the home crowd, cheered on by friends and family and both standing on the highest podium is a moment Stöhr will never forget.

Stöhr had planned to retire after the 2018 World Championships that will take place this September in Innsbruck, but a niggling slipped disc injury has convinced her that the time is now ripe to take a step back. The competition circuit will miss her captivating, winning smile. But that, we’re certain, will now beam on boulders outdoors just as brightly it has done in competitions during her last, victorious decade.

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