Sports | Climbing

Competition Climbing

Eight years on the Dutch national team — from youth competition to World Cups, a senior national title and 9a.After more than a decade of national and international competition, I stepped back from the international circuit while continuing to compete nationally. In 2026, I finished second at the Dutch Lead Championship.

Margalef · Spain · Nov 2022

Underground · Arco · 2020

National Champion

Lead Climbing · Adults · 2021

5× Champion

Dutch Youth Championships

34th

Best World Cup Result

Selected chapters

01The pursuit takes shape · Age 13–16

I wanted to see how far I could take my climbing

By my mid-teens, I was training around 30 hours a week, often twice a day.

Because the national training centres were far from home, reaching them could add roughly 35 hours of travel in a peak week. School had to fit around both.

Eventually, simply adding more hours was no longer the answer. If I wanted to find the limits of what I could become as a climber, I needed to use those hours better — and I needed an environment the Netherlands could not provide.

Progress is not measured in hours.

It is measured in what those hours produce.

02Moved to Innsbruck · Age 16

At sixteen, I moved to Innsbruck to put myself in an environment built around climbing.

Innsbruck, in Austria, meant world-class training facilities, mountains within immediate reach, and strong climbers around me every day. I finished high school remotely from there.

Training became the priority. I worked with my coach Ingo Filzwieser alongside athletes from the Austrian and German national teams and the many international climbers who regularly came through Innsbruck.

I studied the school material independently and returned to the Netherlands once each semester for a few days to take my exams, then went back to Innsbruck.

03First youth title · Age 14

Dutch Youth Champion Lead Climbing

NJK Lead · Tilburg · 2016

Winning my first Dutch Youth Championship at fourteen was an early turning point.

It gave me confidence that the years of training could lead somewhere much further.

04First 9a · Age 18

Underground

9a · Arco · 2020

Underground was my first 9a and remains one of the climbing performances I value most.

It traverses roughly 20–25 metres through a steep, almost horizontal cave, with difficult sequences broken up by technical kneebars and a crux around 8A in bouldering difficulty. For me, the ascent marked the point where years of training, competition and refining movement came together on rock.

05First senior title · Age 19

Dutch National Champion Lead Climbing

Lead · Sittard · 2021

At nineteen, I won my first senior Dutch national title in lead climbing.

It came after five youth national championships — a clear milestone in the transition to senior competition.

06International circuit · 2014–2023

Years on the international circuit

Nine years of international competition took me from youth events to senior World Cups and the European Games.

It began at a youth festival in Imst at eleven.

Selected international results

2017 — see this year in the complete competition record: 9th · Youth World ChampionshipsBoulder · Innsbruck

2021 — see this year in the complete competition record: 13th · Youth World ChampionshipsLead · Voronezh

2022 — see this year in the complete competition record: 34th · World CupLead · Chamonix

2023 — see this year in the complete competition record: European GamesKraków · Team NL — TeamNL athlete profile, opens in a new tab

Four results from a much longer record. View complete competition record →

07Back on the national podium · Age 23

Dutch National Lead Championship

Lead · Nieuwegein · May 2026

2nd

After stepping away from international competition, I returned to the Dutch circuit for the competitive atmosphere, the challenge, and the chance to see how I still measured up against the next generation.

Coaching & training

Passing On What I’ve Learned

Competition has also become something I share with other climbers.

Over the years I have given youth workshops and climbing sessions, and I now give a weekly training session within the Climbing Network competition team, sharing techniques, training ideas and lessons from my own competition experience.

More speaking and workshop experience →