I LOVE watching climbing competitions. We have regular watch parties with our friends, and I’ve always loved Alannah Yip’s commentating. She’s also an incredible athlete to watch – so powerful and smooth. When I saw her Instagram post recently about wanting the IFSC to have more stringent regulations on climbers’ health and weight in order to be able to compete, I knew I wanted to have her on the podcast.

Weight and health monitoring among our top athletes in climbing is something I’m passionate about, and I think this topic is incredibly important to be talking about and taking action on. It’s easy for climbers to go down the rabbit hole of “lighter is better” and end up with an eating disorder and RED-s (relative energy deficiency in sport), which can lead to low bone density, hormonal imbalances, loss of menstruation, infertility, digestive issues, and more.

It’s a big deal and I was glad to see such a prominent person in the climbing community speaking up about it, as have several others including Janja Garnbret recently.

Here’s Alannah’s Instagram post about it.

We also talked about Alannah’s personal struggle with an eating disorder at a young age, her training, her mental game and how she’s had to work really hard on it since the Olympics. We talk about what the Olympics meant to her and how she’s trying to qualify for them again in 2024, and how she’s planning to retire from comp climbing after that.

This was a really engaging interview with an incredibly thoughtful and intelligent person. I loved it and I hope you do, too.

• Alannah Yip’s Instagram: @alannah_yip

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Los Angeles (USA), February 29: Alannah YIP of Canada competes in the women’s Combined finals at the Sender One Climbing Gym during the 2020 IFSC Pan American Championships in Los Angeles (USA).

© 2020 Daniel Gajda/IFSC.