FINISH HOLD - #24 > AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2008 - Alex is #1

Small-town girl Alex Johnson, 19, of Hudson, Wisconsin, took first for the women in the bouldering World Cup this June, at the Teva Mountain Games in Vail, Colorado. She climbed with confidence and determination to beat out the reigning world champ, Anna Stöhr and 13th-ranked Katharina Saurwein, both of Austria. Alex’s win helped answer the question, “Can American competitors hold their own on the world stage?” It also meant we got to hear the American national anthem played at the first American World Cup in nearly two decades –a nice touch. Here, Alex ends UC#24 in her own words.

Randomness –that’s how I got started climbing. There was a fair in small-town Minnesota, and there was a wall. The guy working the wall also worked at a climbing gym in the little town and said I should come out to the gym. Then my grandparents got me a pass to go, for my birthday. The day I went, there happened to be a comp, so I entered [the 10 and Under category], and I won. From then, I climbed about one week per year until I was 11 –then I started climbing all the time.

There are a lot of random strong people here in my town – people who no one has ever heard of. You just wouldn’t think it, coming out of Minnesota...

I was really, really nervous semifinals day, because of the pressure I put on myself to make finals. Since I qualified first, I had to go last in semis. I don’t think I’ve ever been that nervous in my life in semis. In the finals, I wasn’t nervous cause I’d already made it as far as I wanted to go.

I don’t know how to explain it, but I’m still just surprised... I’ll go to the gym and there are still all these [people] who are better than me. There are so many strong people who don’t compete. There are so many people crushing no one knows about...

I do want to [go to Europe] to compete, but I can’t afford it right now. Although I did win more money in that one day than I’ll probably earn all summer –and it’s all going in the bank.

My parents don’t climb, but they’re psyched for me to climb. I have a younger brother, and he hates climbing. Back when I was doing local comps I’d always beat him and he’d hate it... now he fishes and plays football.

[At Minnesota State before the World Cup,] we had track meets every weekend and I could only climb two or three times a week, just to keep in shape. But as soon as school was out, we bouldered every day in the gym until the competition.

I still don’t think of myself as the World’s Best Boulderer.