July Blog

I waited a few weeks to write about my trip to China for the World Championships because immediately following my return, much of what I had to say was sliding towards a not-so-positive end of the spectrum. The most appropriate thing I can say about my adventure right now is that it was a learning experience. I was hoping that missing my first flight from Denver to LA wouldn't become a bad omen for the rest of the trip, but sadly that happened to be the case. I'm actually still struggling a bit to find things to write about in a way that doesn't just sound like complaining.

After getting stuck in heinous traffic and running around DIA for three hours trying to get on another flight, I finally ended up buying a brand new ticket on a completely different airline. I met up with Daniel Woods and Lisa Rands in LA just in time to make the flight to Beijing. Thirteen hours later we were being detained on the aircraft while every passenger was examined for Swine Flu. One poor girl on our plane had a slight fever and she was taken away. We later learned that Netherlands competitor Vera Zijlstra was taken from her plane with a fever and quarantined for eight hours. Another three hour flight and an hour bus ride later, we arrived at our "athlete base" in the town of Xining.

We soon found out that the food provided on our base was-to put it politely-inedible. This could have been due to the preparation tactics, or lack thereof, and also because of the differing standards. But because our "athlete base" was the only place within an hour to get food, the 200 competitors either tried eating and suffered through the illness, or stopped eating altogether. It would be accurate to say over half the competitors were sick on the days they had to compete. Being sick would have been only a little less dreadful had our "toilets" not been holes in the floor of our showers. This made for quite a stinky and unpleasant bathing experience. On a funnier note, the first time I went to shower I turned the water on and the shower head fell off and hit me in the face.

However, the opening ceremony for the World Championships was one of the best I've ever seen, with dancers in beautiful, colorful costumes lighting up the stage in front of the comp walls. It was very well put-together and entertaining.

Battling through hunger, exhaustion and diarrhea, the first day of the competition went relatively well, with all three of us advancing to semi-finals. The setting style was unlike anything I had ever experienced. The walls had really blunt angles and were filled with volumes. The setters also seemed to be strong supporters of using small screw-on jibs as handholds. Every problem was meant to be done in a specific strategic manner, one which I personally had a hard time figuring out. I ended qualifiers tied for 7^th place with four tops and five attempts, and I fought my way to the top on each problem. The problem that I didn't top-number two-I regret to say I had an incredibly hard time getting off the ground. Then there was a five day break between the bouldering qualifiers and semi finals. The weather was hot and sunny, and we were able to spend some time in town and at the venue watching the other disciplines.

The lead competition was by far the most exciting to watch at the entire event, men's and women's. The route setting seemed to be carefully schemed to break up the field of ridiculously strong competitors very precisely, as it did so right down to the eight finalists. For the women, with Korea's Jain Kim and Austria's Johanna Ernst both flashing the finals route, the tie-breaker went back to the semi-finals held earlier that day, and 16-year-old Johanna was crowned World Champion. Here is what she had to say about the trip:

After this trip to China I thought never go back to China! Because the food was soo bad! We all got sick except the French guys because they got an injection against getting sick! But we did not and so we cooked on our own in the hotel and this was lots of fun. =) And I bought lots of things on the market! It was very cheap and I spend all my money there. =) And as we met the U.S. guys it was more funnier then before =) hehe.

Photo Courtesy of Li Shu

The competition was ok. It was very hot and the sun was burning. There were not that much people watching and they didn't do anything! They just watched! It was like at a cemetery. No not really like that because they did like "ohh" when somebody fell down... And the hotel where we stayed was 45 minutes from the city away! So it was so boring there. We couldn't do anything just laze around. I was just happy when I got home again... as World Champion. =D

                                                ~Johanna Ernst

Leaving out details of the aforementioned not-so-stellar parts of the trip, that pretty much summarizes everything sufficiently. On a brighter note, we did make some fantastic purchases at the market. Johanna forgot to mention that she returned home with a freshly purchased ninja sword, so I'll add that in for her as I find it fascinating. And while we were out shopping, we found an arcade and played a super intense game of laser tag with the Austrian team. I believe Team USA won, but they may disagree. We were also extremely out numbered. And I don't think my gun was working!

With our stomachs aching to return to the good ol' USA, we had one more day of competition left. If you've ever tried doing anything physically demanding when you're malnourished you can imagine how hard it was to try to compete. With rain pouring down on the spectators, drenching the walls, and puddling on the pads, the semi-final round started. There were four problems in this round, and I topped numbers one and three, as they were by far the closest to a style I recognized. Number three even had a dyno! I seemed to have an unlucky streak with the second problems from each round. On number two in semi's I had to mantle up into a roof, spin around to face the crowd, and then walk my hands out the roof to try to grab a jib on the face. It didn't happen.

Photo Courtesy of Li Shu

Number four was incredibly tricky: A big move out to a giant triangle volume the size of a Smart Car; throw a heel and mantle the volume, traverse your hands through three jibs while somehow keeping yourself on this triangle feature, and then jump/fall into the finish hold. My first go I miraculously made it up to the end somehow, jumped for the finish, slipped off because the hold was wet, fell on my face, and split my lip open. Alas, I never completed the problem, and didn't qualify for finals. I ended up in 10^th, Daniel in 17^th, and Lisa 19^th; needless to say not our best results. But like I said-it was a learning experience.

Wrapping up the competition and knowing we were going home soon couldn't have been any more welcoming. Daniel and I had to spend the night in LA before flying back to Denver, and immediately after landing at LAX bag-less (mine was left in Xining) we put a $40 order in to Domino's Pizza to be graciously awaiting our arrival at the hotel. It was no ninja sword, but that pizza was some of the best money I've ever spent.