Introduction

Anouck Jaubert (FRA) Age: 27

Anouck Jaubert is a product of the French Climbing Team's high-performance Speed set-up in and around Grenoble, France. Jaubert picked up where her compatriot and IFSC Speed World Cup winner Esther Bruckner left off. Active on the senior circuit since 2011 following a promising youth career, Jaubert's breakthrough year came in 2014 when she earned her first podium place and ultimately displayed astonishing consistency by winning a medal in seven out of the eight Speed World Cup rounds, including her first win in Arco, to finish 3rd overall. In 2017, she won five out of eight events to take her first overall World Cup title and she successfuly defended her crown in 2018. Over the years, Jaubert has enjoyed many close-fought duels against fellow Olympic-qualified athlete Iuliia Kaplina (RUS), with whom she has interchanged championship titles, World Records and World Cup wins. Jaubert's consistency is reflected in her six-year run of podium placings in the overall Speed World Cup ranking from 2014-2019. 

However, Jaubert is still seeking an elusive World Championship win, having placed 2nd in 2016 and 3rd in 2019. When the Olympic Combined format was first announced, the French team looked to Jaubert as an obvious candidate for selection, especially given her relative competence in Boulder. It was never going to be easy, however, given the depth of the French women's team. Julia Chanouride and Fanny Gibert would quite literally be giving Jaubert a run for her money in their respective dominant disciplines. 

Qualification route

Tripartite Commission Place - Hachioji

Jaubert came eye-wateringly close to selection in Hachioji, finishing 11th and just one place out of contention. Being one position ahead of teammate Julia Chanourdie, and far ahead of Fanny Gibert, Jaubert placed considerable pressure on her compatriots ahead of Toulouse, and put herself in an especially strong position given the uncertainty surrounding Tripartite Commission allocations.

In Toulouse, the tables turned and Chanourdie excelled, clinching the first French women's spot, with Gibert finishing as unlucky number seven and just one place out of the six eligible spots. Unfortunately for Gibert, her narrow miss came at the wrong place at the wrong time, and when the 2020 IFSC European Championships in Moscow were postponed but the Tripartite Commision's goalposts remained in place, it was Jaubert who was allocated the unused quota place due to her performance in Hachioji, which was prioritised over Toulouse in the selection hierarchy. Receiving a phone call during lockdown to say that she'd earned an Olympic spot must have been rather surreal and perhaps anti-climactic for Jaubert, but she'd done the work when it mattered and completed the four-strong French contingent for Tokyo.

Trivia

Jaubert practised dance, ice skating, judo and gymnastics before settling on climbing. Alongside her competition career, Jaubert is training to be a physiotherapist. 

UKC prediction

Given Jaubert's need to excel in Speed in an especially stacked women's Speed specialist field, we're not sure she will make finals given Aleksandra Miroslaw's consistency in big events and YiLing Song's potential next-generation edge, but a good Speed result and a higher finish in Boulder and Lead than her Speed rivals could place her in the top 15.