Matthias Dubach (text) and Benjamin Soland (photos)
Petra Klingler (29) actually has climbing in her blood. Her parents Regula and Christof already love climbing. But before the 2016 bouldering world champion can start family sports as a child, she needs patience.
Klingler is born with a sickle foot and a club foot. “That was a shock, because it was not visible on the ultrasound images,” says Mama Regula to Blick.
To correct the misalignment, Little Petra was put in a cast as a baby for nine months. Every Friday the Klinglers drive to the children’s hospital in Affoltern am Albis to have the plaster splints replaced. The Olympic athlete says: “I still remember that I had to call my mommy to go to the toilet because I couldn’t walk with the cast.”
As a child, she had to wear special shoes
The plaster torture is over at nine months. Petra starts right away. “At nine and a half months she was able to walk and immediately climbed everywhere,” recalls the mother. Even the special ankle-high shoes that she has to wear for years to come cannot slow the Bonstetter’s urge to move.
Klingler is teased at school because of her chunky shoes – now in Tokyo she is our great hope in sport climbing, which is Olympic for the first time. The medals are awarded to the best in a combined ranking from the three disciplines of speed (climbing for a limited period of time), bouldering (mastering tricky spots unsecured) and lead (mastering a 20-meter wall). This is another reason Klingler says: “I don’t put any pressure on myself. It is Russian roulette who will be in front. ”
Hard training instead of the final rehearsal
That’s why she’s allergic to predictions. Both those who see them as contenders for medals. Or the one in the “NZZ”, which she is copying as a podium candidate. «It is extremely difficult to assess. Because there are athletes who have skipped the season and only start in Tokyo, ”says Klingler, who herself also skips the home World Cup in Villars VD, although this is the Tokyo dress rehearsal.
“I preferred to train hard again.” That means: Even individual fingers are maltreated until they become bloody. But also the head has to be pushed to the limit. Purposely, seemingly impossible positions are taken – with the aim of mustering the mental strength, but somehow activating the necessary muscles.
To prepare for the biggest competition of her career, Klingler did not work for three months, her flexible 50 percent job in Swiss marketing allowed it. Will her employer soon fly her back with a medal around her neck?