Strategist, talent recruiter, travel agent, psychologist: The multi-tasking coaches behind the world’s most successful sport climbers
Drafting a training plan, mapping out a trip around the world, or diving into Freudian psychoanalytic theories? Sport climbing coaches do it all and more. Olympics.com look at the unsung heroes behind the success of Olympic champions and World Cup winners and the many roles they fulfill in and out of the gym.
Sport Climbing
There is much to capture the imagination in a sport climbing competition – from the geometrical walls, colourful holds, and ominous tick of the countdown clock, to the daring leaps, lightning-quick ascents, and heartbreaking falls.
But rarely does the gaze turn to the space right in front of the wall where, cast in a chalky mist, are the coaches who have helped to orchestrate this spectacle.
Olympics.com turned the spotlight away from the climbers and onto those watching, shouting, cheering, and sometimes shedding a tear, on the sidelines. The five coaches we spoke to followed different paths into their current roles, but they share at least one thing in common. Once in place, they have gone beyond the job description to take their athletes to the top of the wall - and even higher.
The talent recruiter
An athlete is measured by their results, the coach by the results of their athletes.
One of the most crucial skills for a coach then is being able to pick out those diamonds in the rough who are poised to become champions. For Team Slovenia's coach Luka Fonda that happened to be a young Janja Garnbret.
"Janja grew with us practically," Fonda said of the sport climber who would go on to win the first women's Olympic gold medal in the history of the sport at Tokyo 2020 in 2021.
"It's how you build someone from really the beginning. Like as a kid...that you know that it's possible, that you are in an environment where you believe that you can because you are maybe on the same training, you are part of this team for a long time and it's putting the small pieces together."
Sometimes it's not the coach who turns an enthusiastic kid into a competitive climber, but the kid who turns an adult with a regular nine-to-five job into a climbing coach, as was the case for the British father-son duo Tristan and Toby Roberts.
The younger Roberts got “so psyched” on climbing after his first session that dad Tristan, who had no exposure to the sport until that point, had no choice but to join his son in the gym.
"I know every single thing about climbing and taking an eight-year-old with no exposure to climbing to an 18-year-old who's winning World Cups," Tristan Roberts told Olympics.com. "I've learned over the 10 years how to be a coach to someone in that environment in the same way that he's learned how to be an athlete.”
The strategist
Once you find an athlete, you need a plan. Or, as in Tristan Roberts' case, a six-year plan. Divised when Toby Roberts was 11 years old, the plan outlines the family's plans to get the young athlete to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
David Macia may not be making plans so far in advance, but no one could accuse the Spanish coach of neglecting his athletes. The man behind Alberto Gines Lopez’s men's gold medal at Tokyo 2020 typically spends 13 hours at the gym every day of the week.
“During the preparation season I work from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., practically seven days per week,” Macia told Olympics.com. “Our staff is quite small so I have to take care of the speed climbers in the morning, the lead and boulder athletes in the evening. But it totally pays off. It’s my passion.”
An athlete-turned-coach, Germany's Maxi Klaus says the key is to create a unique training plan for each athlete.
“We try to find a strategy for each person and we have to (test) it in training," the lead coach told Olympics.com. "It will change every once in a while or every year. I think that's very important. It's not a strategy for all people.”
And the planning does not stop even once a solid training regime is in place.
“You have to be able to respond," Tristan Roberts said. "If he's tired, if he's fatigued, if he's not handling something mentally, if there's an injury, if you just start going from fatigue into maybe burnout, you have to be willing to forget about what your plan was.
"That's probably where I've got quite a good role is because I know him, I don't even have to ask him. I can see whether there's something on his mind. I can see whether he's tired and we can then adapt his plan accordingly.”
Manager and travel agent
As far as Team Slovenia's training plan goes, Luka Fonda is not giving anything away.
"The strategy is top secret," he said with a smile.
But while Fonda's behind-the-scenes work as the team's strategist is shrouded in mystery, he has plenty of other roles wide open for public viewing.
"In Slovenia we are so small that we are three coaches for the team and we are doing both boulder and lead," Fonda said. "The role is to plan the team training, selections, to choose setters, to plan all the season and the most important competitions. For sure to fix all the travels around, to basically cover all the team in boulder and lead and combined for all season long."
This work is certainly time-intensive, not that Fonda has any complaints.
"The tradition of competitive climbing in Slovenia is quite big," he said. "It's really a long time ago, already more than 20 years, we've been working so hard (to be good at) climbing competitions. With this tradition, we are small country and psyched people, and really (it's) a lot of work. I think it's the right path to achieve the results like this and also to achieve an athlete like Janja."
The psychologist
No training plans, charts, or scorecards were of use to Canadian coach Malek Taleb when his athlete, Alannah Yip, broke down after the first round of the 2023 Climbing World Cup in Chamonix. At that point, his role as coach took a backseat and he focused on being a comfort and a friend.
"That's my focus on her now is to forget about the first route. Like (saying), 'It's just climbing, anything in life doesn't always go great, but you keep fighting for what you know you can do and try to do your best'," Taleb told Olympics.com after the July competition. "I wasn't in psychology or anything. I'm actually a mechanical engineer...(But) I can relate a lot to human beings and I try to treat her right now as a human being that's hurting and needs some support to move on."
Germany's Klaus also does not limit his role to looking after the athletes' competition results.
"It's not just about training. It's very important that your head is also fit for competition. I cannot just train, and my head is tired, and my physical's strong. You never win or do your best. It's not just about winning," Klaus said.
"It's very important to take time as a coach, between the trainings, to talk to find out, does he need help or does she need help, or is it OK. And also sometimes it's good to have someone, a professional, to help with it, where sometimes the coaches are on our limit, so we need a therapist. We cannot do everything. We try to help as much as possible."
The athletes on the Slovenian team have the option to visit a specialist if they have such mental health concerns. There is no pressure to do so, Fonda stressed, but the athletes need only ask and the coaches will arrange an appointment.
The diplomat
For David Macia, his relationship with Olympic champion Gines Lopez is much more than that of a coach and athlete, but rather that of two friends who share the same goal.
"My work with Alberto Gines is based on truth," he told Olympics.com. "We understand each other perfectly just from looking at each other. We’ve spent so many hours together, crying and laughing together, dealing with pressure. When he won gold at Tokyo, it was one of the best days of my life."
Macia tries to teach his athletes not only how to perfect their climbing technique, but also lessons on sportsmanship. It is one of the three pillars of his philosophy as a coach - "theory, practice, attitude".
"I always say to my athletes, 'Celebrations less euphoric, defeats less traumatic'," Macia said. "We are rooted in our respect for our rivals, our teammates, our friends. We must recognise all the help we’ve had on our journey, the people who have been with us."
Canada's Malek Taleb also sees the building of relationships with foreign climbers as one of his main tasks as a coach. Stronger connections with other federations gives his athletes more opportunities to train with other teams, learn from them and improve their performances.
And that is, ultimately, what makes him happiest.
"Seeing athletes, when they perform at their best, when everything clicks, it's magical," Taleb said. "Maybe it doesn't happen every day, but when it happens, it's an amazing moment and those are the moments I really look forward to."