On a warm August evening in Hachioji, Janja Garnbret placed her hands on the final hold of the lead wall and claimed a piece of history no climber had ever touched. The Slovenian had already won the bouldering and lead world titles inside ten days. When she secured the combined crown as well, she became the first athlete to sweep all three golds at a single World Championships.
A final decided by fingertips
The combined title was settled not in the bouldering round, but on the lead route. Akiyo Noguchi of Japan reached the last two holds and was a fingertip away from topping out — a move that would have given her the gold. Garnbret followed, climbing deliberately as the clock ticked, and clipped the top draw cleanly to overtake her.
Shauna Coxsey, who had outperformed both in the bouldering round, faded in the lead phase and finished with bronze. The margin was measured in a single clipping sequence, and Noguchi’s near-miss made it the tightest combined finish the championships had seen.
Lead perfection on an impossible wall
The lead final took place on a night when no competitor, male or female, could find the top — except Garnbret. She reached hold 43, the high point of the entire evening, beating fellow Slovenian Mia Krampl and denying Noguchi the combined title by the smallest of margins.
On that same route Ai Mori clipped the last draw some 40 seconds behind her. But the gold already belonged to the woman who had arrived in Japan carrying a season no one else could match.
A crown built on a perfect season
Across six Bouldering World Cup stops that year she had won every single event, topping 74 of 78 problems — a clean sweep never achieved before in competition climbing. Only weeks earlier she had suffered a rare stumble, missing a Lead World Cup final in Chamonix for the first time.
“I feel like you always learn more from your failures than your wins,” she said afterwards. In Hachioji she turned that lesson into three gold medals, capping a year in which every World Cup she entered, she won.
A boulder queen, a lead master, and now the first complete world champion. Hachioji marked the moment climbing’s greatest all-rounder came together.
