“It’s hard on my stomach”
German climbing star breaks his promise for the Olympics
May 6, 2024, 10:37 a.m
Qualifying for the Olympic Games in Paris presents Alexander Megos with a major challenge. Not even for sport, but for his conscience. Because he has to get on a plane to travel to Shanghai.
Alexander Megos is one of the best climbers in the world – the German scene star wants to fight for medals at the Olympic Games this summer. In order to get to Paris, the 30-year-old doesn’t just have the upcoming qualification ahead of him. He also has to break a big, green resolution. “I said three years ago that I would no longer get on a plane for a competition,” says Megos. Unfortunately, the qualifying event for the Olympics will take place in Shanghai on the third weekend in May – and you can’t get there that quickly by train or carpooling.
Megos actually feels like a rock climber, an outdoor athlete, and a bit of a free spirit. At the age of 19, he achieved – almost by chance – a world record that amazed even the top stars of the time. From one day to the next he was famous in the climbing scene, and since then he has conquered some of the heaviest rock faces in the world.
He needs the feeling of real stone and rock under his fingertips; nature and climate protection are very important to the man from Erlangen. He regularly tries to draw attention to environmental and sustainability issues, including on his social media channels. When Megos talks about Shanghai, it becomes clear how annoying the intercontinental flight is to him. “It’s hard on my stomach,” he says. “I have to break my own rule. But this will be the last time.”
Even skipping the Olympics was considered
In fact, Megos had even considered skipping the Olympic qualification and with it the chance for his second Games after Tokyo 2021. For more than a year, he pondered with his two trainers and confidants what was more important: the green conscience or the sporting challenge? “The deciding factor was that it was probably my last chance to qualify for the Olympics again,” says Megos. So he makes the compromise – of course he is also ambitious.
What was out of the question, of course, was participation in the previous World Cups of the season in China and the USA. The form test with some of the best competitive climbers and Olympic favorites was therefore missed. Is that a big disadvantage? Megos hopes not. He says that his German training partner Yannick Flohé is “almost the absolute best in the world” and that he can “roughly estimate where I stand” for that reason alone.
Flohé also has a good chance of qualifying for the Olympics. After Shanghai (May 16th-19th), the second and final event will take place in Budapest from June 20th to 23rd. Both competitions are added together and the top ten athletes each receive their tickets for Paris. Eight athletes per gender had already secured their Olympic participation through the 2023 World Cup and continental qualifying events.
Megos and Flohé compete in a combination competition that combines bouldering – i.e. climbing difficult movements at jump height – and lead – classic rope climbing. Unlike in Tokyo, speed climbing on a standardized wall with the same sequence of holds is now its own discipline.
It’s “mega cool” for Megos on the rock
Olympic regulations, new competition formats, elaborate events around the world: somehow none of this is really Alexander Megos’ world. He welcomes the fact that the Summer Games in Tokyo in 2021 and now in Paris in 2024 and the associated hype have made the sport more popular. “Nowadays, when I tell someone that I’m a climber, I’m much less likely to be asked, ‘So, have you been to Mount Everest?’ Megos grins. The Franconian has been fully committed to training for months and absolutely wants to take part in the Summer Games in August and climb for the podium.
But after that, he’s looking forward to putting competitive climbing back on the back burner and going to his beloved rock more often. In mid-April, Alex Megos is sitting in the climbing hall in Munich-Thalkirchen, and the next training block is about to begin. He says that two days before he was out on the rocks with Flohé, somewhere in the Franconian Jura. And he quickly gets into raptures: “It was super cool. Even though it was cold, raining and even hailing, it was somehow good.” And he doesn’t have to get on a plane to experience something like that.