Olympic champion Janja Garnbret warns that climbing has a ‘cultural’ problem with eating disorders

As an Olympic gold medalist and an eight-time world champion, almost no one knows the world of competitive climbing like Janja Garnbret.

As an Olympic gold medalist and an eight-time world champion, almost no one knows the world of competitive climbing like Janja Garnbret. Having risen to the summit of the sport, the Slovenian now wants to use her platform to raise awareness of “cultural” pitfalls in climbing that she says are contributing to a widespread issue with eating disorders. The problem stems, she says, from an outdated ideology that weighing less means you climb faster. Such a mindset has created an environment where young athletes start skipping or cutting down on meals, she says, sometimes to disastrous effect. Despite not having issues with eating disorders herself, she is more than aware of friends and fellow competitors who have damaged their bodies in the pursuit of a lighter frame. “This is a cultural thing in climbing, it’s integrated in our brains that the lighter you are, the stronger you are,” Garnbret tells CNN Sport, recognizing that weight does have some role to play in the sport. “Of course you don’t want to weigh too much, but you don’t want to weigh too little and so you just have to be something in the middle.