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What about me?
In 1997, when I was 12 years old, I started climbing in a gym in Amsterdam, where I soon found out: this is gonna be it!
Before I had been swimming a lot, but it didnīt bring me as much joy, and since I climbed every obstacle I saw, like trees, and streetlights, climbing seemed to be the thing for me.
I didnīt think of rocks and mountains at that moment, though my parents had practicly raised me in the alps; to me it was just a great feeling to pull myself up on the funny plastic holds, not caring about the lots of people around me.
That feeling changed a lot during the years, but the basic is still there: climbing is my life!
Competitions
Climbing for me is divided in two major parts, that are related, but stand far away from each other.
The first part is competition climbing. This is linked with indoorclimbing, and off course training. Before I was just climbing for fun, and didnīt care about training, but slowly Iīve changed to a serious sporter, and today I train full-time. The fun is still there, but training can be hard, and not allways as nice. Now I have found the motivation to go on, train hard, and have fun in climbing.
It started with some junior competitions, that took me to the dutch youth championships, where I won. This was in 1999, ans the year after I started in the seniors, and to my surprise I became adult champion with 14 years...
This demotivated me a little, and I started focussing more on the other part of climbing:
Rockclimbing
After I started climbing, I landed in a small training group, where we didnīt train very hard, but we learned how to climb well, and that indoor climbing was in fact just a ītraining` for the rocks, which was the īreal stuff`.
Soon I came in Fontainebleau, where I realised that the rocks are way more fun than the gym, and I persuaded my family to go to the south of France, where I could climb.
Naturely I wanted to allways do a harder route, and when I was15, I did my first 8a, in the first try, it didnīt even felt so hard.
Motivated by other youth climbers, I had lots of fun in trying to do the hardest routes I could find, but sometimes I also just wanted to do some nice easy routes, that the beauty of rockclimbing, it can be so inspirating and relaxing at the same time...
International competitions
Because I was dutch champion, the federation send me to the EYCīs (European Youth Cup), and I immediately loved them. It was so motivating to see other better climbers, to learn from their styles, and there was a lot of nice girls :)
In 2001 I won every cup in the season, but on the world champs I was too nervous.
One year later it did work out, and I got the title, but I wasnīt really satisfied with it, because my big concurrent made a technical mistake and couldnīt climb on, I thought I didnīt deserve to be world champion...
In the year 2004, the last year I could participate in the youth, I was in real stronger than everyone, and I became world champ again, this time I was happy with it.
At that time I already had done some senior worldcups, where after a few times stranding in the semi finals, I became the first dutch climber to reach the finals (top 8), and I became 7th.
The year after I got to the finals more often, and I even made it on the podium, with a 3d place in Slovenia, which motivated me enormously, and I decided to start training more seriously, showed off in the first part of the season 2005, where I got a 2d and a 3d psoition, and I made it to the finals every time, except once.
All these competitions took me to lots of places, all over europe, but also in China. This way doing a competition becomes a small holiday for me, and so I can relax, and cope wtih the stress.
Climbing as a lifestyle
When I was still in school, I tried to get in the rocks every time I had a few days off. The problem was that the better crags were about 1000 km away, so I was travelling a lot.
This caused that in the schoolyear I graduated, I was in another country for 1/3 of the time, because of all the comps, the holidays with my family, or with my girlfrined, who was luckily also climbing.
Two summers long, I went to the south of france for 8 weeks, where we drove in all the climbing areas wih bicycles, trying to find nice routes and mountains.
Since I graduated in 2003, climbing has been the major part of my life, so straight after my last school exam, I took a plane for a competition in Arco, Italy, and stayed there over a month. I lived in a small cave, underneath the hard routes, and life was just about, eating, climbing and sleeping.
Unfortunately I broke my foot in a nasty fall in my project, and had to climb on with one leg, till after a week the sweeling was gone and I managed to put on a climbing shoe, and the competition season started.
I could barely walk, but I still did the worldcup in Lecco, where I made it to the semi finals. When I came down from the semi, I was put on a brancard immediately, and was driven to the hospital, because the italiens didnīt understand I was walking around like that for two weeks already...
After living a while with a good friend of mine in the south of france, I got a grilfriend in Brussels, Belgium, so I moved there. I got to now a lot of belgium climbers, and I went to the rocks there, which were a hard school :)
A year after my relation got to a sad end, and I was travelling around in the alps, first france, then switzerland, and then I landed in Innsbruck, Austria, where I got to know Katharina Saurwein, who I allready knew a bit from the EYCīs, and we fell in love...
I still live with her here in Innsbruck, and I think Iīll be staying here for a while. Innbruck is the center of climbing-Austria, with a lot of nice crags, lots of good climbers, and also a beautiful climbing gym, where I can train the best I can.
Since the beginning of 2005 Iīm training seriously and professionally for the first time in my life, and that showes off both in competitions and in the rocks.
Autumn 2005 Iīll start a study, here in Innsbruck, in the direction of geology, and physics
I will be climbing worldcups for a long time I think, and train therefore hard, but climbing in the rocks will allways stay close besides it.
After all, after my girlfriend, thereīs nothing more important to me than climbing.
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