Shauna CoxseyMBE (born 27 January 1993) is an English professional rock climber. She is the most successful competition climber in the UK, having won the IFSC Bouldering World Cup Season in both 2016 and 2017. She retired from competition after competing in the 2020 Olympics, and continues to climb at a high level outdoors.
Early life
Coxsey was born in Runcorn on 27 January 1993. She began climbing in 1997 at the age of four, inspired by a television broadcast of Catherine Destivelle climbing in Mali.[2][3] Although she was not tall enough to be allowed to climb, she continued to insist and was eventually allowed on the wall a few months later.[4]
Career
Coxsey climbing at the Boulder World Cup finals in August 2017
In 2014, Coxsey placed second overall in the IFSC Bouldering World Cup,[9] and fourth at the Bouldering World Championships in Munich.[10] The same year, she became the third woman ever to boulder 8B+ (V14) when she topped New Baseline in Magic Wood near the Swiss town of Chur.[11] In 2015, she won the British Bouldering Championships in Sheffield and took first place at the Bouldering World Cup in Munich.[5][12][13][14]
In late 2016, Coxsey suffered a shoulder injury which prevented her from competing in that year's Bouldering World Championships,[6] despite topping the overall rankings in the Bouldering World Cup.[15] She won four IFSC Climbing World Cups in Meiringen (SUI), Kazo (JPN), Innsbruck (AUT) and Sheffield (UK). At the World Cup in Munich (GER) she placed second.[5] In 2017, she again won four Bouldering World Cup stages,[6] in Meiringen (SUI), Kazo (JPN), Mumbai (IND) and Vail (USA). In Munich (GER) she again placed second and secured the overall 2017 title.[16][5][16][17] Despite being primarily a boulderer, she began training in lead and speed as part of her bid for the 2020 Olympics, which would feature rockclimbing for the first time as a combined discipline.[18]
In August 2019, Coxsey won two bronze medals at the 2019 IFSC Climbing World Championships in Hachioji, in bouldering and the combined event. During the finals of the combined event, she set a British women's speed climbing record of 9.141 seconds, securing second place in the speed component of the combined ranking by winning races against Futaba Ito and Miho Nonaka before losing to Aleksandra Miroslaw.[19] Her record lasted until August 2024 when it was finally broken by Ava Hamilton at the European Championships.[20] Additionally, by reaching the finals of the combined event, Coxsey secured a qualification spot for Tokyo's 2020 Summer Olympics, the first to include competitive climbing.[19] When the Olympics was finally in 2021, she was recovering from a back injury, surgical treatment and rehabilitation. She came 10th in the competition.[21] She retired from competitive climbing after the Olympics, while continuing as an elite-level rock climber with a focus on outdoor bouldering.[22][23][24][25]
In 2022, Coxsey continued climbing on indoor climbing walls whilst pregnant with her first child; she worked with a specialist physiotherapist and her husband, who is also a climber, to assess the routes as her body shape changed.[22] Upon returning to outdoor climbing, after having her first child, she has climbed at a high level, including sending three 8B+ (V14) climbs in 2024.[26][27][28]
^"Speed finals: Villars 2024". IFSC. 29 August 2024. See 2:08 for an announcement of Hamilton's new British record and beginning at 1:21:00 for an interview with Hamilton.
