Whether climbing walls or making sewing patterns, there is no problem James Pope cannot solve
Rock cliffs, climbing walls and fine fabrics - British athlete Jim Pope will use any surface as an opportunity to showcase his diverse skill set.
Sport Climbing
For James Pope, his hands are his tools of the trade.
The British athlete relies on the strength of his fingers to hold on to shallow holds in a climbing wall, their pain tolerance to withstand the roughness of the edges in rock climbing, and their delicate touch to sew clothes.
“It would be really strong hands,” Pope said of his biggest strength in and out of the gym. “Just from your hands being your main point of contact with the wall, just good grip strength. My mom's always asking me to open jars for her.”
Olympics.com spoke to the young sport climber about using his hands to climb into the top tiers of the sport and outdoor climbing worlds, and how sewing helps him to relax between competitions.
Pope will next be in action at the Olympic Qualifier Series (OQS) in Budapest, Hungary. Follow his competitions and all the other OQS events in a livestream on Olympics.com and the official Olympics app.
From outdoor cliffs to manmade walls, everything goes for Jim Pope
At the start of his journey in climbing, Pope’s hands were usually covered not only with chalk, but also the dirt of rugged outdoor surfaces.
There was an age limit for children that could go climb in indoor gyms, which meant that all of Pope’s early climbing was done outside during family holidays. The gym rules kept changing, but Pope was always hovering just under the new limit.
“When I first started climbing, kids weren't allowed to climb inside. It was just for adults. Kids weren't allowed on the wall,” Pope said. “The age limit when kids were allowed kept changing, so at first they were like, ‘Oh, you have to be seven’, and then came my seventh birthday and they were like, ‘Oh, so we've changed it to eight’, and then they changed it to nine so it was actually quite a long time before I was allowed to climb inside.”
Pope tried out the climbing wall as soon as he turned nine and met the allowed limit. In comparison, children in Great Britain can now enrol in such classes as early as age two.
Getting access to London’s multiple climbing walls opened a world of new possibilities for the young climber.
“It was exciting,” Pope said. “Growing up in London, we obviously didn't have much outdoor climbing nearby, so I'd always really look forward to going and climbing outside on my holidays. But I knew that we had all these climbing walls nearby. I just couldn't go to them. So it was really exciting to finally be let in and let free.”
The transition from outdoor to indoor climbing was a fairly smooth one for Pope.
Not only did the strength and technique that he developed climbing outside helped him to get higher on the wall, but Pope also tapped into the mental edge that rock climbing gave him to calm his nerves while competing in front of spectators.
“Sometimes in outdoor climbing, there's a lot more risk involved, potentially, so that can be a good example of having to really perform under pressure,” Pope said. “You have to climb perfectly, and I think being able to tap into that is the same skill you need when you're in a competition environment and you have to perform your best to win on that day.”
James Pope in action during the first stage of the Olympic Qualifier Series, in Shanghai, the People's Republic of China.
New demands of sport climbing
While the traditionalists still hail rock climbing as the only authentic climbing discipline, Pope says there is a great value in combining the two.
“Originally, indoor climbing was seen as training for outdoor climbing,” Pope said. “Some people really aren't interested in competitions, but for me, it's nice that it broadens the sport. People can do everything. Indoor climbing is a great way to get into the sport. And then, if you're interested, it can funnel you into the outdoors, which can take you to some like really amazing and beautiful places.”
For Pope, giving sport climbing its own place of honour among the climbing variations is especially timely given how different its demands have become over the years. While the first sport climbing World Cups were held on rock surfaces with the routes mapped out across cliffs, competitions have since transitioned to manmade walls.
The style of climbing has also changed. Whereas earlier wall routes mimicked the slower, meditative outdoor climbs, now the routes are designed to favour speed and thrills.
“Society and sport, in general, have evolved to enjoy more fast-paced, action-based things, so the style of the climbs has changed a lot,” Pope explained. “They are a lot more dramatic and showy. There's lots of crazy running jumps and coordination, and sometimes it's almost closer to parkour than it is to original rock climbing.”
Sport climbing, rock climbing and a PhD? Jim Pope's fine balance
Pope meets these new challenges with enthusiasm and a readiness to adapt.
He has balanced training in the two disciples but is focusing more on sport climbing in 2024 to deliver a good performance at the Olympic Qualifier Series. The two-stage competition will determine the final sport climbers to secure a Paris 2024 quota.
Going rock climbing now makes Pope feel like he is taking vacation from sport climbing while still improving his climbing skill set. He sometimes even takes an actual vacation to scale some cliffs.
“Competitions and outdoor climbing feel very separate, so if I've done a full season of competition climbing, I might go on a holiday and still be climbing,” Pope said. “Doing rock climbing feels so different to the competitions that it feels like I'm doing a totally different sport. So I tend to, in my time off, go climbing outside in various different places.”
Pope likes to keep things balanced in other aspects of his life as well.
Until a year and a half ago, he was juggling training with studying for his master’s degree in applied sport and exercise science. While taxing on his time, Pope said the multi-tasking also helped him to be more relaxed on the climbing wall.
“I've always liked having a few things on the go,” he said. “When I go all in with climbing, I feel like I put a little bit too much pressure on myself, so when I split my time between studying and training and competing, it helps me to take the pressure off of it a little bit. And I really enjoyed studying, so it was nice to do it. Maybe I'll do a PhD one day.”
Stitch by stitch: How sewing clothes helps Jim Pope become a better climber
Another activity that helps Pope to switch his focus is sewing.
His mother was a seamstress and taught him how to sew from a young age. Pope started off with chalk bags, which he sold at his gym to help fund his competitions. Once he got bored of “making the same thing over and over again”, he transitioned to making some of his own clothes.
“I’m really into sewing,” Pope said. “It’s like Tom Daley with his knitting, it's all consuming. When you're doing it, you can't be half doing it, half watching something. The mistakes would really show, so it absorbs all your attention. And that's quite a nice way of not thinking about any of the other things that you could be worrying about or stresses. You’re just zoned in on whatever the task is you're doing. It's quite meditative.”
Pope wore one of his creations during the interview – a dark, long-sleeved shirt with a collar. It took him two days to finish, including making the pattern based on an outline of a jacket that he already liked.
Aside from helping him relax and keeping him well-dressed, Pope is also drawn to sewing because it taps into his sport climber’s instinct to solve problems.
“It's the challenge. That's the fun bit of it,” Pope said, shrugging off the suggestion that there are simpler ways of filling a closet. “There's easy ways of getting up the climbing wall. You could just walk around the back. But we always try to find the hardest way.”