Petra Klingler

Petra Klingler (born 14 February 1992) is a Swiss rock climber who specializes in competition climbing. Known as a versatile climber, she competes in a wide range of competitive events, including competition bouldering, competition speed climbing, competition lead climbing, and also competition ice climbing.

Early life
Klingler is a third-generation climber and began climbing multipitch when she was six years old. She and her brother would spend weekends outdoors, while her parents and grandparents climbed, typically with three adults climbing and the other watching them. As a teenager, she tired of climbing with her parents and began going to gyms and entering competitions. She was good at horse riding as a youth, but outgrew local competitions at 13 and began focusing on climbing instead. Klingler initially competed in lead climbing, but has since moved towards bouldering.

Competition climbing career
Klingler was described as a "late bloomer" by climbing media after winning her first gold medal aged 23 in bouldering at the Haiyang leg of the 2015 IFSC Climbing World Cup. That same year she came third in lead climbing in the UIAA Ice Climbing World Championships, and second in lead climbing in the overall UIAA Ice Climbing World Cup.

In 2016, she studied Sports Science and Psychology at the University of Bern, while also training, typically doing 10 sessions a week. Klingler described her main gym as not ideal for bouldering, but perfect for systematic training. She pulled back from training a bit in 2018 to finish her degree. Klingler won the 2016 IFSC Climbing World Championships for bouldering.

In 2017, she finished with a bronze medal in the UIAA Ice Climbing World Cup despite injuring her knee halfway up the final route. Klingler was in tears after stretching some ligaments and damaging her meniscus, but managed to continue up the route using only one leg.

In 2019, Klingler won the Swiss championships in all three competition climbing disciplines: lead, speed and bouldering,  and qualified for the 2020 Summer Olympics during the 2019 IFSC Climbing World Championships.

In 2022, she took part in Red Bull Dual Ascent, an informal competition hosted by Red Bull on the Contra Dam featuring pairs of climbers on mirrored multi-pitch climbing routes. The next year, she announced her intent of trying to qualify for the 2024 Olympics as her last goal in competition, making the 2023 World Championships her last.

Climbing World Championships
Adult