Olympic champion Alberto Gines on being shy, his aim of winning everything, and why he's like a panda bear
Gines sparked a climbing revolution in Spain with his gold at Tokyo 2020: “After my win, there were crazy lines to go to the climbing gyms. People started climbing because of me.” It completely changed the scene in his country and now he's leading the way to help grow the sport.
Sport Climbing
“It’s a like a surfer from Sahara qualifying for the Olympics”, Alberto Gines said in his first interview with Olympics.com, right after the Spaniard qualified for the Tokyo 2020 Games. He was 17.
A year later he won Olympic men's sport climbing gold, becoming the first Olympic champion ever.
Following the win, Gines spoke to us again about his passion for growing the sport in his country: “My dream for the future is to start a youth team, my own gym in Spain.” But for now he is focused on competition. Gines won two bronze medals at the European Championships in Munich in August, and wants to repeat the success at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
We talk to him about the pressure he had after Tokyo, mental health, his goals for the future, and much more.
Our full the exclusive interview with the 19-year-old is below, ahead of the season-ending IFSC World Cup 2022 Boulder & Lead event in Morioka, Iwate, Japan (20-22 October) which is live on Olympic Channel and available to livestream via Olympics.com (territorial restrictions apply).
Olympics.com (OC): At Tokyo 2020 in 2021, you became the first climbing Olympic champion in history. How much has your life changed after you won that gold medal?
Alberto Gines (AG): Definitely, my life changed after the Olympics. But I would say not for a long time, especially the first three or four months after Tokyo. Then people started to forget. Climbing is not a big sport in Spain and I’m not the biggest athlete. I got three or four months of glory [laughs]. But now, people still pay some attention if I’m competing. I still receive a lot of messages on social media. It’s very nice that they still remember me.
OC: What kind of challenges did you have with the pressure of competing after Tokyo? Can you explain what that was like for you, being the Olympic champion and having that expectation when you were competing again?
AG: After being Olympic champion, in my first World Cup, I felt like my Olympic medal was adding 50kg extra in my back. The first comp was really hard for me. I remember people saying how bad I was in boulder. But actually, until this year (2022), I’ve never been good in boulder, as I was focused in lead. But these comments and feeling the pressure helped me. People were saying I was almost dead and I want to prove that they were wrong. Now I started to improve a little bit and am getting good results in boulder and now I’m quite confident.
"People were saying I was almost dead and I want to prove that they were wrong." - Alberto Gines
Alberto Gines on mental health
OC: Confidence is good, but it also comes from having physical confidence and mental confidence. How is your journey with working with a psychologist?
AG: The psychologist helped me to get this pressure out. It was very good, because it’s something I couldn't see right before. He knew exactly what was happening in my mind and gave me some tips I could do before the competition to get better, but it was me who had to do the effort. The psychologist really helped me and that’s why I’m doing so good.
OC: There are more athletes talking about mental health these days. How important do you think it is?
AG: Seeing big athletes talking about mental health, pressure… it’s very important. You can usually see some athletes saying: “I can’t compete, because my arm is injured," for example. But it didn’t happen with mental health until now. Now the entire world is talking more about mental health. There is still a stigma to talk about it, but we are changing it.
Sport climbing 'boom'
OC: What impact do you think your success at the Olympics has had on your country and Spanish climbers?
AG: I think what I did at the Olympics helped a lot to climbing in Spain. After I won, climbing gyms were crazy. There were crazy lines to go into the climbing gyms, a lot of new gyms opened. Even now, I still receive a lot of messages from people saying: “Oh I discovered climbing because of you. I went to the climbing gym and my whole family is climbing thanks to you.” That’s super nice.
OC: How does that make you feel? You're completely opening a new world to a whole bunch of new people.
AG: I feel I give something to climbing and climbing gives me a lot of things. So, it's like getting the balance there. But yeah, it's crazy how I can make people take decisions, going to a climbing gym or something. It's super crazy.
"I feel I give something to climbing and climbing gives me a lot of things." - Alberto Gines
Alberto trains between the High Performance Center and Chris Sharma's gym in Barcelona. The American climber is considered one of the best rock climbers in the world and owns big climbing gyms in Barcelona and Madrid, a space for Alberto and his teammates to train.
OC: You are passionate about growing the sport in your country.
AG: Yes, actually we are trying to organise some travels to Spain with the competitors to climb around there and be in Spain with them, because we don’t get that much competition in Spain. I think maybe the last one was in 2014. We got the World Championships in Gijon. After that we haven’t get any international comp there, so I’d like to get the competitors there.
OC: You are the face of climbing in Spain, but are there other Spanish athletes who you think could be prospects for Paris 2024?
AG: Erik Noya, definitely. I have been living with him for one year in the high performance center in Barcelona. You see when someone really wants something, when you are fighting for something it’s easier to achieve it. He can really get it. I would be really happy if he qualifies for the Olympics, and even more if I can do it too. It would be awesome to be there with him.
OC: What is your long-term goal? If we have this conversation in 10 years time, what would you like to achieve by the time you're 30?
AG: Nowadays, I know what I want. I want to be the best climber ever. Maybe I'm a bit late. [laughs] At the moment I want to win everything I can. That's why I’m competing, because I love it. Maybe in five years I get bored of competing and I start rock climbing again, as I used to do when I was young. But probably when I turn 30, I’d love to have won a lot of things, being happy with what I did and, luckily, I will still love what I do right now. But 30 is still a good age to be competing if you are motivated. After that, I would really like to start a youth team, like my own gym in Spain. Just taking young kids who love climbing and trying to make them get better for the future of climbing sport in Spain. It’s just a dream right now.
"At the moment, I want to win everything I can." - Alberto Gines
Just a normal 19-year-old guy
OC: Who is Alberto when is away from climbing?
AG: I would say Alberto without climbing is a normal 19-year-old guy. And that's how I like people to see me. You can be with me or talk with me about a lot of things that are not climbing. I really like a lot to listen to music (Spanish rap), watch anime and read manga.
O: When you are competing, you are the centre of attention, but would you consider yourself an outgoing person or a shy person?
AG: I'm super shy. Now, after all this travel, meeting a lot of people, doing some interviews... I think I force myself to be more extrovert. But deep in myself I'm super shy. With some people, I can be super open and talk a lot with them, but with others I don’t feel that confident.
O: What is your inner animal?
AG: A panda bear. Because we both are lazy. [laughs]