At just 25-years-old, Shauna Coxsey will be hoping to cement her status as Great Britain's most successful competitive climber in two years' time, with the sport making its debut at the Tokyo Olympic Games.
The double World Champion and former world number one will compete in a combined event in Tokyo, comprised of lead climbing, speed climbing and bouldering – her specialty.
And despite having been climbing since she was four, competitively from the age of seven, Coxsey concedes that she never even considered the possibility of doing so on sport’s biggest stage.
“I never imagined I’d see climbing at the Olympics, let alone having the opportunity to compete,” she said.
“I loved competing and I knew that that was what I wanted to do but competition climbing obviously wasn’t in the Olympics, and it wasn’t something I thought I’d see during my professional career.
“The main emotion I have towards it now is excitement and I think it’s really cool that climbing will be on such a prestigious sporting stage, and if I can be there and be part of it, that’d be amazing.”
Coxsey won her first national title at nine and has enjoyed unprecedented success in the intervening years, winning Bouldering World Cup gold in 2016 and 2017, as well as every British Bouldering Championship that she has entered.
The Olympic sport climbing discipline will prove a test for Coxsey, however, with the roped styles of both lead and speed Climbing a slight departure from the free climbing that she is used to in bouldering.
It is a challenge, however, that Coxsey is up for, and a bronze medal in the Combined Climbing World Cup last year shows promising signs of development.
“For me, bouldering is my preferred discipline,” she continued.
“In the past, I was predominantly a lead climber, so transferring back to that discipline feels very natural.
“It’s something that is quite nostalgic and I’m really enjoying the feeling of being high up on the wall again. It’s something that I hadn’t really realised that I’d missed.
“Speed climbing is alien to me. It’s something totally new and initially, that seemed quite daunting, but actually, I’m loving it.
“The idea of training speed is incredibly exciting – it’s just a totally new challenge and I’m not someone to shy away from a challenge.”
Now is a particularly exciting time for climbing, which is one of five sports added to the Olympic programme ahead of Tokyo 2020 alongside baseball, softball, karate, surfing and skateboarding.
With participation on the up, the introduction of the sport to the Olympic stage should only serve to fuel public interest.
Data from Sport England’s Active People’s Survey found that climbing or mountaineering is the fourth-fastest growing sport in the UK, whilst figures also show that participation rates are currently higher than football.
And for Coxsey – a director of the Women’s Climbing Symposium, which promotes participation of women in the sport – this is just as important as a shot at a medal.
“Since I’ve been climbing, I’ve seen the sport grow at a tremendous rate – a rate I’d never expected,” she said.
“It’s been fascinating to watch the sport develop and be a part of that development as well. I’m very passionate about promoting climbing in the most positive way because I think it’s such an amazing sport.
“It’s really changed over the years and it’s exciting to see more people coming into it.”
However, the prospect of competing for an Olympic medal is one that’s difficult to ignore, and Coxsey was clear when discussing her ambitions.
The Tokyo hopeful added: “My hopes for the Tokyo Olympics are to give a performance that’s medal-worthy.” Sportsbeat 2018