Cover art for 14: Cody Grodzki, USA Chief Routesetter

2/20/24

14: Cody Grodzki, USA Chief Routesetter

Cody is the USA national chief routesetter, and in the 2023 IFSC season he had the opportunity to set boulders in Hachioji, Prague, Innsbruck, and the Bern world champs! In this episode, we’ll watch him read Youtube hate comments, and we’ll learn about the differences between IFSC vs USA vs commercial routesetting, as well as hear about a crazy cool gym that he will be opening up soon.

Cover art for 13: Carlie LeBreton, First Female Chief Setter at World Champs

2/5/24

13: Carlie LeBreton, First Female Chief Setter at World Champs

Carlie is the FIRST female chief setter at an IFSC world championship, where she led a team of 5 to set the world paraclimbing championships in Bern 2023! She has been climbing for over 20 years and setting for almost just as long, so she has a lot of experience. In this episode, we’ll learn about all the things you have to keep in mind when setting world championship routes for paraclimbers, what it’s like in the routesetting scene as a female setter, and what it’s like owning a climbing gym.

Cover art for 12: Anita Aggarwal + Christiane Luttikhuizen, RP3 Paraclimbers

1/22/24

12: Anita Aggarwal + Christiane Luttikhuizen, RP3 Paraclimbers

Anita Aggarwal and Christiane Luttikhuizen are paraclimbers who have competed in world cups as part of the RP3 sports class. RP3 is a classification for limited reach, power or stability. In this episode, we’ll learn about what it’s like climbing with a disability, the difficulties dealing with classification and class merging, whether or not the IFSC does a good job with accommodations, and the possibility of joining the Paralympics in LA 2028.

Cover art for 11: Stasa Gejo, Serbia’s Climbing Star

1/8/24

11: Stasa Gejo, Serbia’s Climbing Star

Stasa is a boulder and lead climber (specializing in boulder) from Serbia who has been competing in international cups since 2011 as a youth climber. Most recently, she took the silver medal in the Laval European Qualifiers. In this episode, we’ll learn about Serbian funding in the sport and OQS, we’ll get a glimpse into what bouldering isolation is like, hear some tales from the commentary booth, and hear her reflect on the 2023 season.

Cover art for 10: Sam Watson, Future Olympian - USA Speed

11/27/23

10: Sam Watson, Future Olympian - USA Speed

Sam is only 17 years old, yet he has already won gold at a world cup, holds the speed climbing record in the US, and recently secured his Paris 2024 Olympic ticket at the PanAm Qualifiers. In this episode, we’ll get more insight into speed climbing at the highest level, his experience at the PanAm Games, how he juggles personal life, school, and climbing, and we need your help in figuring out how he can up his social media game!

Cover art for 9: Campbell Harrison, Australian Lead Climber

11/13/23

9: Campbell Harrison, Australian Lead Climber

Campbell represents team Australia and is one of the Oceania region’s top competitors for moving onto the Olympics in the boulder and lead combined category. He also recently got elected to the IFSC athlete’s commission, so in this episode we’ll talk about causes he’d like to champion through that, what it’s like competing as an Australian, and he also opens up about his past struggles with eating disorders, as well as why he was partially missing in Olympic qualifiers in 2020.

Cover art for 8: Matt Groom, IFSC Commentator

10/30/23

8: Matt Groom, IFSC Commentator

Matt Groom is a freelance commentator best known for being the lead commentator at IFSC world cups. You may also find him hosting EpicTV Climbing Daily, writing for UKC, or commentating at other climbing competitions. There's a lot of talk online about Matt, and in this EXCLUSIVE interview we go over his response to criticism as well as his explanation for some of the mistakes caught on audio.

Cover art for 7: Zoe Spriggins, World Cup Organizer

10/16/23

7: Zoe Spriggins, World Cup Organizer

Zoe is a program manager for GB Climbing and is an expert in organizing and running climbing competitions! Her FIRST world cup event was Edinburgh 2022 and it was definitely…eventful. She also has experience organizing paraclimbing competitions and Bern world champs. There’s much more going on behind the scenes of climbing competitions than you’d expect, so tune in to learn more about what it takes!

Cover art for 6: Allegra Maguire, Climbing Psychologist

10/2/23

6: Allegra Maguire, Climbing Psychologist

Allegra is a Youtuber, mental climbing coach, and co-founder of ClimbInFlow, which provides services for climbing mind training. She has experience coaching all types of climbers, from beginners to world cup youth athletes. She recently came home from coaching at the youth world champs in Korea, where she helped Geila Macia Martin podium in boulder and lead! Allegra has also competed a bit herself, competing in Swedish Lead Championships after only 2 years of climbing.

Cover art for 5: Albert Ok, Speed Coach + Injury Collector

9/18/23

5: Albert Ok, Speed Coach + Injury Collector

You may have seen Albert's old viral Youtube videos where he does deep-dive analyses into great comp climbing beta-break moments. Nowadays, he is spending more time working on his own training to hopefully make the USA national team, as well as working as a speed climbing coach. You may know some of the athletes he works with, such as Grace Crowley and Sam Watson!