Polish twin climbers Natalia and Aleksandra Kalucka: From life-threatening births to world champions
Lucky to survive their premature births, the siblings take to the speed wall at the Climbing World Championships in Bern, Switzerland from 1-12 August, thankful to be able to challenge each other at the highest level of their sport.
Natalia and Aleksandra Kalucka had the most challenging of starts in life.
Born prematurely on Christmas Day 2001, doctors fought for the twins' lives, predicting they would have limited functions should they survive.
Twenty years later, and Natalia Kalucka stood atop the podium in Moscow as the speed climbing world champion, beating her sister, who was returning from a lengthy time out after a horrendous injury, on the way to the title.
Aleksandra, known as Ola, came 10th, but the following year she reasserted her form by claiming the overall World Cup speed title after finishing in the top three in six out of the seven events that made up the 2022 series. Natalia secured third.
The pair are now eyeing the 2023 IFSC Climbing World Championship in Bern, Switzerland, taking place from 1-12 August to not only replicate Natalia's feat, but also qualify for the first quota spots available for sport climbing at Paris 2024.
The two highest-placed climbers per gender at the World Championship will obtain one quota place each, with a maximum of four quotas (two men and two women) available to each National Olympic Committee. Additional opportunities to gain places are available at the Continental Qualifiers in 2023 and the Olympic Qualifier Series in 2024.
Polish climbing stars
The fight for those places at Paris 2024 goes beyond the twins, due to Poland's plethora of super successful speed climbers.
Aleksandra Miroslaw is a two-time world champion herself (2018 and 2019), making the 2023 edition an opportunity for Poland to claim a fourth consecutive women's speed climbing world title. Miroslaw bagged bronze to Natalia's gold last time out.
At the 2018 edition, Anna Brożek claimed silver with a 1-2 for Poland, and will be spidering her way up the wall in Switzerland with more medalware in mind. Patrycja Chudziak makes up the quintet, aiming for an improvement on her ninth-place finish in 2021.
At sport climbing's Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020, all three disciplines – boulder, lead and speed – were combined, with uber-successful climber Janja Garnbret of Slovenia claiming the inaugural gold medal. Japan's Nonaka Miho and Noguchi Akiyo claimed second and third with Miroslaw just missing out on the medals in the dreaded fourth place, but not before securing a world record of 6.84s in the speed climbing discipline.
But at Paris 2024, speed has its own competition, and a Polish medal is very much achievable; not just in speed, but also in the combined boulder and lead discipline. That journey starts at the worlds in Switzerland, with the Kaluckas very much at the fore.
Life-threatening start to life
Born at seventh months, the challenging start in life for the twins left its mark. Both were left blind in one eye – one in the left, one in the right – but as Natalia put it in an interview with Polish news website Onet.pl: "I don't really know what it's like to see normally, I've had one eye since I was a child, so it's fine for me."
The siblings' parents were instrumental in the girls' strong development, especially mother Sylwia. "My parents didn't have much money at the time," said Natalia, "but they did their best to keep us physically and mentally healthy. My mother was particularly stubborn in this endeavour. She tried hard. She devoted ten years of her life to this, because at that time she did not work, she only took care of us."
Attending a free holiday camp in their home city of Tarnów was the impetus for their climbing career.
"I was five or six when I became interested in climbing," said Natalia, "but my parents said it was too early... I was eight years old when I tried my hand at it. The first time I was very scared and even cried.
"I remember that in primary school, the biggest fights and crying were when we couldn't go to training," said Ola. "We love it. I know that even after the end of my career, I will continue to do it."
Rollercoaster continues
Ola, the youngest by two minutes, secured first competitive bragging rights, claiming the world junior title in the 16-17 years category at the IFSC Climbing World Youth Championships in Innsbruck, Austria in 2017. The following year, Natalia claimed top spot in Moscow. The two have been duking it out ever since, sometimes quarrelling but never in training after a ban from the coach. "There were times when even chairs flew", admits Natalia.
But when disappointment strikes, the pair go through it together.
Several months before the World Championships in September, Ola fell on the safety mattress from a height of five metres during a bouldering training session, suffering an open fracture of two bones on her left lower leg.
"It was full of blood and the bone was exposed," recalled Ola. "The pain was excruciating."
"First there was a terrible silence," said Natalia who witnessed the accident. "Ola said nothing... But when I saw what had happened, I cried."
Racing against each other in Ola's first competition back seven months later, therefore, was a perfect scenario instead of an animosity-laden stress fest.
"Whenever we compete against each other," said Natalia, "I have this comfort that if I mess something up, my sister will win. This means that one Kałucka will always be higher."