It Takes Two to Train: Shauna and Leah’s Secrets for Getting Strong
These British Besties Know How to Have Fun, Especially When It Gets Super Serious. Shauna Coxsey or Leah Crane often post photos of themselves training together, traveling together, and competing on the World Cup bouldering circuit together. They seem inseparable.
In fact, sometimes, in their perennially popular photo homages to AcroYoga, they appear to be literally inseparable. Their limbs are all intertwined. And you’re not sure where one person’s body ends and the other begins. And it feels like you’re looking at a sort of a two-blonde-headed griffin that’s all muscles and smiles. Happy faces : train is fun !
2016 was a banner year for the British Besties. It was Leah’s first year training and competing full time. And she surprised herself by finishing the IFSC World Cup bouldering season in 11th place overall. She was also delighted to make finals in the Adidas Rockstar competition.
Train and work hard !
Shauna, meanwhile, crushed 2016. She is currently the number-one female boulderer in the world. The result of over five years of dedication and hard train. The grueling competition season, however, ultimately took a heavy toll on Shauna. In Munich, the last World Cup event of the season, Shauna tore her labrum on problem 2 in the finals, still flashed problem 3. But then she didn’t perform on number 4. Still, her winning streak over the entire season was enough to secure her a dominant spot as number one in the world.
Climbing partnerships, when they’re at their best, are no different than any tight, loving, platonic relationship. What we can achieve when we have a partner to push us past our own preconceived limits is amazing. And Shauna and Leah seem to embody that truth. For the past 15 years that they’ve been friends. These two have found that synergy to train together. And it’s taken them around the world and to the top of many podiums.
Andrew Bisharat got the opportunity to speak to Shauna and Leah on the phone and hear more about their friendship, training, and their famous climbing partnership.
How long have you known each other ?
Leah: We have probably been unofficially climbing together since we were really young—maybe10 years old.
Shauna: I was 7 when I first started on the competition scene.
Leah: So about 15 years we’ve been climbing on and off together. We’ve been training full time, really closely together, for the past 2 to 3 years.
Shauna: For me, I really love training with people. I don’t like training on my own so much. I’ll do it if I really have to. Having someone who is motivated and really psyched is really important. And Leah was that person. I realized that, and we started training pretty much full time together and for me it worked really really well. To have someone who was super motivated all the time. Well … not all the time. Sometimes I would be the most motivated, and then other times it would be Leah. For me it was really important to have someone around that pushes me. And Leah’s understanding of climbing is incredible, so she’d be able to help me out with a move and beta and stuff.
Read the full interview
