Sometimes the wall is a good friend, then she generously forgives a mistake. Sometimes the wall is cruel and repellent and takes revenge for every little mistake. Jan Hojer has learned to live with the wall over the years. With their moods. With their moods.
Hojer is a sport climber, he got to know the wall in all positions, sometimes he hangs almost upside down on it, sometimes it is above him - and below him nothing but the meters to the floor.
The climbers speak of ascent, which can confidently be described as a gross understatement. The encounter with the wall is always a challenge, and in the new year Hojer accepts the challenge of the Summer Olympics.
Two Germans in Tokyo
Sport climbing in Tokyo has been included in the Olympic program for the first time. In addition to Hojer, Vice World Champion Alexander Megos has qualified for Germany. The so-called combination is climbed in Tokyo, a competition that unites the three individual disciplines of climbing on one competition day:
•• In the lead discipline, difficulty levels on the wall must be mastered. Climbing is done with a rope safety device. •• When bouldering , you climb on the wall completely without securing. •• As the name suggests, speed climbing depends on completing a route on the wall as quickly as possible.
Mickael Chavet DPA
Climber Jan Hojer secured the Olympic ticket in Toulouse
There are three disciplines that have different requirements, and that's where the problem begins for the climbers. Most of them are specialists, Hojer, for example, has made a name for himself in lead and bouldering for years, has become one of the best in the world and has won World Cups. But endurance is required there, while speed climbing, on the other hand, depends above all on leg strength - combining both at the summer games will be the high art.
"In the beginning, speed training was a huge change, I had extreme muscle soreness in my legs," Hofer told SPIEGEL, but now he's got used to it. "However, I started earlier than anyone else to meet up with speed specialists and watch their targeted leg exercises." When the decision was made in 2017 that sport climbing would become an Olympic combination, the Cologne-based company quickly adjusted: "For me, it was a good sporting decision."
Not everyone saw it that way. Stars of the scene like the Czech Adam Ondra were initially anything but enthusiastic about the chosen mode. In any case, it was not without controversy that the sport climbers took the path to Olympia. Climbing in the field, hanging on the wall, also depends on the reputation of the non-conformist, the individual, apart from regulations and qualification standards. There was therefore criticism when sport climbing appeared on the IOC shortlist. But not with Hojer.
Climbing made a profession
The 27-year-old has been on the scene for ten years, he is one of the few in Germany who can make a living from it, he has enough sponsors. Participation in the Olympics is also an important push for him, especially when it comes to acquiring donors. "Since it has been established that sport climbing will become an Olympic event, sponsors have also come forward to whom our sport has previously meant little." Hojer now has a manager who takes care of these matters. The time for cleaning the handles is over.
Jas C. Hong DPA
Fascination with sport climbing: world champion Janja Garnbret from Slovenia
Sport climbing is located in Germany at the German Alpine Club - the Olympic Games were also a challenge for the association. The Alpine Club actually and originally cares more about mountaineering, that the mountain huts are in good condition and about tourism. The conditions for an Olympic discipline had to be created first, "Especially when it came to speed, there were no existing structures at the beginning," says Hojer, but that has now changed.
The sport climbers like to do their own thing anyway, Hojer left the State Association of North Rhine-Westphalia at the age of 13 "because I realized that I would do better on my own". Hojer still swears by trusting his own experiences, listening to his own body. If he hangs in the wall with his back to the floor, no bandage will help him anyway.
He has been climbing since he was a child. His older sister got him on it, she had visited the bouldering hall in Frechen and needed someone to come along to secure it. Hojer came with - and has stayed until today. And when he goes on vacation, like this year before Christmas in Spain, he does not lie down in the sun, but goes to the rock to feel the bare stone in his hands.
Climbing is like vacation for sports climber Jan Hojer. The next summer vacation is already booked: Tokyo in August.
