SHAUNA COXSEY TO RETIRE FROM COMPETITIONS AFTER TOKYO 2020
With a heartfelt post published on her Instagram profile, 28-year-old athlete Shauna Coxsey announced she will retire from Sport Climbing competitions right after the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020.
In the message, shared with her over 400-thousand followers, Shauna wrote:
“I’m channeling everything I have left, everything I’ve learnt over the years and focussing all my energy on the games. This will be my next and also my last competition as a professional competition climber.
After years of being ready, years of preparation, off seasons spent fighting to get to the start line, years of harnessing the desire, the determination and the belief it feels so wrong to admit I no longer want to do competitions. It feels alien. I know how to compete. I know how to come back from injury. How to embrace the highs and navigate the lows. I’ve done it. Time and time again. I know how to be up there with the best. I’ve stood on 30 World Cup podiums, won 11 gold medals. I’ve been there no matter what was thrown my way. But this time it’s different. I’m different, the world is different.
I know that I have one fight left in me and despite so many unknowns it feels right to be putting everything I have left into such a special moment for our sport.
The Olympics will be my last event as a professional competition climber. I’ve thought long and hard about this and I have many emotions. I made this decision a little while back due to many reasons. But right now all I can think about is how grateful I am. The breadth and depth of my experiences is hard to comprehend. This sport has given me so so much. And to this wonderful community who have supported me through the highs and the lows and I can’t thank you enough!”
The legendary athlete from Sheffield will go down in history as one of the most decorated Sport Climbing athletes of all times – with 11 gold medals, 12 silvers, and 7 bronzes won at World Cup level, while also securing the 2016 and 2017 Boulder World Cup title.
At the IFSC Climbing World Championships Hachioji 2019, she placed twice on the third step of the podium – both in the Boulder and Combined discipline – securing one of the quota places up for grabs and booking her trip to the upcoming Olympic Games Tokyo 2020.
Alongside her successful career, Shauna Coxsey also carried out a series of activities that established her as one of the most prominent figures in the Sport Climbing circuit: she is an active and longtime member of the Women’s Climbing Symposium, and has been elected Vice President of the IFSC Athletes’ Commission in 2019; while in March 2021 she participated in “Women of the wall”, the first IFSC roundtable focused on the role of women in the climbing industry.
