Johanna Ernst

Johanna Ernst

nation

Austria

birthday

16th November 1992 (age 27)

place of birth

Mittersill , Austria

size

158 cm

Weight

48 kg

Career

discipline

Lead , bouldering

status

resigned

End of career

September 2013

Medal table

World championships	1 ×	0 ×	1 ×
European championships	1 ×	1 ×	0 ×

World climbing championships
gold	2009 Xining	Lead
bronze	2012 Paris	Lead
European climbing championships
gold	2008 Paris	Lead
silver	2010 Innsbruck	Lead

Placements in the climbing world cup

Debut in the World Cup	April 19, 2008
World Cup victories	9
Lead World Cup	1. (2008, 2009)
Boulder World Cup	22. (2009)
Combination World Cup	2. (2008)

Podium placements	1.	2.	3.
Lead	9	4th	3

Ernst at the Boulder World Cup in Vienna 2010

Johanna Ernst (born November 16, 1992 in Mittersill / Salzburg ) is an Austrian sport climber .

Life

Johanna Ernst completed a distance learning course at the evening grammar school in Graz. She made her first climbing attempt at the age of eight on a family holiday in East Tyrol with her sister and her parents, who were 15 months older. The mountain guide at the time immediately recognized her talent and was amazed when he learned that Johanna was climbing for the first time. Her parents then decided to let her practice this sport. In the beginning, her father took over the training and winning the Styrian Junior Cup in 2002 was the first success. She switched to the PES section Innsbruck branch , where she trained with Rupi Messner.

Ernst won at the Climbing Championships 2008 in Paris the gold medal in Vorstiegs -Bewerb ladies and secured the overall World Cup victory in 2008. At 15, she became the youngest European champion this sport. The then 16-year-old crowned her only short climbing career by winning the World Cup gold medal in leading climbing in 2009, making her the youngest world champion in the history of climbing. In the election of the athlete of the year 2009, she was named “climber of the year” in a public vote. On November 15, 2009 she secured the overall World Cup victory for the second time.

In September 2013, she announced that she would retire from competitive sports. According to her own statements, the sporting successes and dealing with the expectations of sponsors and fans were not “what she really wanted”. She lost motivation to train, and there was further pressure that her parents and especially her father had organized family life around the daughter's sports career. Moving out of the parental home was therefore also associated with the solution to competitive sports.

However, she remained connected to climbing in natural rock, where she climbed the climbing routes “La Fabellita” ( difficulty French: 8c) and “Open your Mind” (8c / 8c +) in the Spanish climbing area of Santa Linya in 2012 .

Johanna Ernst lives in Veitsch in Styria (Austria).