Adam Ondra at an open training session before the Bouldering World Cup in Prague, May 30, 2023, Prague.
Prague – Climber Adam Ondra got in a good mood for the World Cup at Letná with successful training on the boulders in Prague. So far, he has arrived in the metropolis for a detour, in the afternoon he is returning to Brno, where on Wednesday morning he will have the final training session before Friday's qualification.
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The biggest domestic star of the upcoming World Cup invited the media to part of his training session today. The journalists saw how Ondra coped with most of the routes without any major problems, only the last boulder required several attempts. He changed his shoes before the successful one.
“He had a lot of strength and a bit of coordination. The first three steps were basically crawling without legs. And when I got over them, there was a so-called heavy toe. Imagine a bowed box in a forty-five-degree overhang, on which you have to hold on with almost all of your body weight only on the tip. But the edge is not sharp, but flat. That's why I switched to a slightly softer climbing shoe, so that the softer climbing shoe would spread on the surface of the structure and rub better,” Ondra described to journalists.
It is not easy for him to find boulders in the Czech Republic that correspond to the modern racing style. There are many difficult walls in Brno, but all of them are of the type that have hundreds to thousands of holds and the climber chooses which of them to use.
“Usually on these types of routes you can't build the modern style, which is more about not only having to jump from one hold to another, but often you have to jump from one hold through two more to a fourth one. Often there are some acrobatic bits and such,” explained Ondra.
That's why he visited the center in Prague's Letňany for competitive types of bouldering. And he was glad that he was doing well. “For me, the last training sessions before the top race are always important. The fact that I do well in them is always such a mental boost that the training goes where it should,” he appreciated.
Trainer Petr Klofáč deliberately chooses tricky boulders for Ondra. “Everything you've seen is not his style at all. It's either off-foot or it's a jump. When he knows he moved well in it, that's what boosts his confidence. If we were to pick what he he sits down, so we won't fool him,” he smiled.
In the week before the races, the training of the multiple medalist from top events is not intense. “Usually it's a thorough warm-up, as if it were before the race itself. That means about an hour for me. And then it can be another one-hour training. It's more about trying a few boulders that will be relatively similar to the racing style,” he said Ondra, who won bronze at the European Championships in bouldering last year.
One day off before the races suits him. “I have training today and a short training session at home in Brno on Wednesday. I'm only here for a spin. I'll return home in the afternoon,” said Ondra, who will then arrive in Prague on Thursday evening.
Men's qualification is on the agenda on Friday from 9:00 a.m. “That's what I'm focusing on now. I think advancing to the semi-finals would be good. And then, God willing,” added Ondra.
