Janja Garnbret started climbing between the ages of six and seven on her own initiative, first on the furnishings in her parents' house, for example cupboards and doors. After attending a promotional event, at which the audience said they were already enthusiastic about her skills, her parents registered her in a club in her hometown. A year later she moved to a club in Velenje , where she was trained by Gorazd Hren. She still works with him today.
She began her competitive climbing career at the age of 14. At this age she had her first successes at various youth championships. Shortly after her sixteenth birthday, she also successfully competed in adult competitions. Already at her first European championship she took second place in difficulty climbing ( lead ). In 2016 and 2017 she dominated the competitions of the International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC); it took one of the top three places in the World Cups 18 times, twelve times the first and won the overall standings twice in a row. Only in four World Cup competitions did she fail to finish on the podium. In 2018 she won the world championship in bouldering and in combination. In the lead, she was the only one to reach the top of all four routes in the competition, but only finished second because of an 8 seconds worse time in the final route. In 2019, Janja Garnbret won all six IFSC Bouldering World Cups of the season and wrote climbing history, because she succeeded before nobody yet. In the same year, she won gold medals at the World Championships in Tokyo in the disciplines of bouldering, lead and combination and qualified for the 2020 Olympic Games , which were postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic .
In addition, she climbs the rock with a high degree of difficulty . At the age of 15 she climbed her first 8b onsight , the route Avatar in Croatia . A year later she managed the route La Fabelita , an 8c in the flash . In 2017 she conquered her most difficult route to date, the 9a classified Seleccio Natural in Spain.
Successes (selection)
Award ceremony at the 2018 World Cup (center)
2013: European youth champion in bouldering and lead in the Youth B group
2014: European Youth Champion (Youth B) in bouldering and lead, Youth World Champion (Youth B) in lead
2015: Vice European Champion in lead, second place in the World Cup in Chamonix and Imst , both lead
2016: World Champion in lead, overall World Cup winner in lead, second place in World Cup, Innsbruck in bouldering
2017: Overall World Cup winner in lead, second place in bouldering, second place at the World Games in lead
2018: World Champion in Bouldering and Combination, Vice World Champion in Lead
2019: World champion in bouldering, lead and combination