While there’s always a lot of focus in professional speed climbing on the men’s IFSC World Cup circuit and debate about who will surpass Reza Alipour’s “longstanding” world record time, the 2019 World Cup circuit without a doubt belongs to the women speed climbers. They had a phenomenal season of competition with two new world records set. I relived the “Year of the Women” in speed climbing when I took some time recently given the COVID lockdown to go back and rewatch some of the World Cup competitions from last year.
Like with the men’s circuit, the women’s circuit is competitive with numerous contenders having the chance to take the gold medal at every World Cup competition. Aries Susanti Rahayu from Indonesia and nicknamed “Spiderwoman” is the upcoming climber to watch as she had an outstanding season in 2018 and came in second in the overall points standing for the World Cup series. Despite some ongoing injuries, I could tell from the start of the season that she had a lot of potential to have some great competitions.
Before Aries Susanti could show her greatness, though, Song Yiling from China stuck first in the season and got her name in the world record book. She posted a time of 7.101 seconds in April on her home turf at the Chongqing World Cup. It was a substantial record that crossed out the previous record of 7.32 seconds that was jointly held by Anouck Jaubert of France and the long reigning champion Luliia Kaplina of Russia.
Until Yiling’s record, Kaplina had held the world record since 2013 and during that time she lowered the record an amazing seven different times. No man has ever come close to such a long dominance in the sport or set the world record so many consecutive times. The only consecutive records on the men’s side were set by Libor Hroza. Libor set back-to-back records on August 30 and 31 of 2014 at the Arco World Cup by first slapping the timer with a time of 5.76 seconds and beating out Evgenii Vaitcekhovskii’s record of 5.88 seconds set in 2012. The next day in the beautiful surroundings of Arco, Italy, Libor came back hungry for more and hit the buzzer with a time of 5.73 seconds which solidified the towering 6’2” Czech’s name in the speed climbing history books. Libor’s reign was short lived as less than two weeks later at the World Championships, Danyil Boldyrev set a new record of 5.60 seconds. Despite a brief stay at the top, Libor’s back-to-back records are still talked about with awe in the speed climbing community.
Yiling’s thrilling run in Chongqing got the speed climbing community buzzing, because it was two years since Reza and Kaplina had set their respective world records. Speed climbers love new records so it was exciting to see a dramatic new one etched into history. Not only did Yiling set a world record in 2019, but she would also end up being the overall points winner in speed for the World Cup season.
After Yiling set her world record, Aries Susanti bided her time and waited for her moment to shine. That time came seven months later for Spiderwoman. Once again in China but this time at the Xiamen World Cup and in a race against Yiling, Aries Susanti made history by pounding the buzzer and revealing a time of 6.995 seconds. It was a new world record and the first time a woman speed climber ever broke the formidable seven-second mark. Wearing her signature headscarf, Aries Susanti showed overwhelming emotion with a massive smile and clenched fists as she was lowered down from her historic 15-meter climb. Years of training and sacrifice had brought her to the pinnacle of her sport. She said in an interview that she found her path in life through speed climbing. Given her young age and deep determination, I think there are many more miles left on her speed climbing path.
Aries Susanti’s record caught the notice of numerous media outlets across the world from CNN to Axios Sports to Yahoo Sports. Previously, she made the Forbes Asia 30 under 30 for her climbing accomplishments. The attention was well-deserved for a woman who was separated at a young age from her parents because they needed to leave Indonesia to go overseas to find work. She has persevered against a lot of difficult odds and fully deserves the title of “Spiderwoman” and a new title reserved for the world record holder: “Queen of Speed”.