Miho NONAKA

For Miho Nonaka, Tokyo 2020 was a chance for her powerful climbing skills to make her a household name not only in her native Japan, but worldwide. And she grasped it with both hands.

The Tokyo-born bouldering sensation, who can be seen on adverts all around her home country, took silver on climbing's debut at the Olympics - second only to perhaps the greatest sports climber of all time, Janja Garnbret of Slovenia.

Climbing is very much in the Japanese star's family. By the time Nonaka started to climb at age nine, her father loved mountain climbing and her sis had already started climbing at the gym.

The friendly sibling rivalry inspired Nonaka to keep pushing and improving – something which she has consistently done ever since she burst on the scene back in 2014. The Bouldering World Cups have witnessed the gradual progression; she came 3rd in 2015, 2nd in 2016 and finally got her hands on the title in 2018, an insight to her ability in this discipline.

She also won a silver in the 2016 World Championships and a gold at the 2015 Asian Championships.