Introduction

Mia Krampl (SLO) Age: 21

Despite only just having turned 20, Krampl has been climbing for 14 years and her experience has brought her some major results relatively early in her career. In 2015 she picked up a European Youth Championship Lead win and she followed that up with 2nd in the Youth World Championships (to Janja Garnbret, no less) the year after. Another year later she made her first Lead World Cup final and then in 2018 three more finals followed, along with an appearance in the World Championship finals.

That’s all very impressive, but 2019 really was when Krampl’s star began to shine - she made the podium at the Munich World Cup in Boulder despite picking up a nasty knee injury on the first boulder, and then came second (to Janja, again) in the World Championships. To round off an epic season, she then qualified for the Olympics after a battle royale in the final with her compatriot Lucka Rakovec at the Toulouse Olympic Combined Qualifier event.

Qualification route

Toulouse Combined Qualifier: 3rd place

Because Japan took climbers to Toulouse who couldn’t claim an Olympic slot, everyone in both the men’s and women’s finals knew that they’d already qualified for the Olympics….apart from best friends Krampl and Lucka Rakovec. Only one of them could join Janja Garnbret in Tokyo and the battle between them was unimaginably tense, with Krampl coming out on top by one move on the Lead wall. Suffice to say, it was pretty emotional - go and watch the replay to see what we mean!

Trivia

Krampl was born in Kranj - a town which hosted an IFSC World Cup for over two decades and is one of the most famous climbing competition venues in the world. Her only World Cup medal to date - a bronze from the Munich Boulder World Cup in 2019 - was famously earned despite carrying a debilitating knee injury and by using a figure-4 move to overcome her handicap. Krampl and Rakovec's friendship and fight for the remaining Slovenian Olympic slot was profiled in a substantial New York Times feature following the Toulouse event.

UKC prediction

Krampl could pull a big result out of the bag, but we think a mid-table finish is her likeliest result.