Meet Luo Zhilu, the 16-year-old at the forefront of China’s climbing boom
- Hundreds of climbing gyms have been opening up across China, with the sport now backed financially by the government
- Luo becomes first Chinese boulderer to medal at World Cup, and is now aiming for the podium at Asian Games and Olympics
Few expected to see an unknown 16-year-old girl from China get the better of world champions and Olympic medallists at the International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC) World Cup this month.
But Luo Zhilu’s historic third-placed finish in Brixen, a town in northern Italy, was emblematic of a sport that has been booming in China, whose climbers are steadily improving – and fast.
Hundreds of climbing gyms have been opening up across China, with the government supporting the growth of the Olympic sport by organising competitions with generous prize money, to the point elite climbers can even become full professionals.
World class foreign coaches now work with the national and provincial teams, with the investment paying off when Chinese climbers Pan Yufei and Song Yiling qualified for the 2022 Tokyo Olympics.
Before Luo, no Chinese climber had ever medalled at the World Cup in bouldering – where athletes climb very short, but extremely difficult routes without a rope.
Now she is aiming even higher, for medals at the Asian Games and the Olympics.
“Get on the podium, or best of all – become champion,” she told CCTV in an interview in April, of her hopes for Hangzhou 2022, before the Asiad was postponed.
