The willingness to dedicate your life in an attempt to achieve a specific goal that is in no way guaranteed.
To work so hard at something that may or may not get you the results you want.
To willingly choose to live a life differently to others around you, sacrificing the “fun things” that everybody else lives for, in a dream for a bigger, more rewarding goal.
The ability to see the privilege in choosing suffering over comfort, thinking that it will get you where you want to go and despite it all, learning to love all of it. Maybe not every single moment, but as a whole. It is definitely not easy, but it is the way I love to live my life.
I am a speed climber living in Port Elizabeth. I have done rock climbing since I was 15/16, but got knocked out in 2022 after a serious elbow injury for almost a year.
After that, I found speed climbing at 22.
I fell in love with it.
I fell in love with the sport itself, with seeing small progress in something I worked hard for every day, with having a personal goal to improve on and take pride in.
I had no idea if I was any good.
I did it because that’s who I am.
That’s the life I love to live. I never thought that it would take me to the Olympics in 2024, not even two years after starting.
Here in P.E. we don’t even have a speed wall, we have the bare minimum to even test the makings of speed climbing. Yet here I am. I’m after it, and nothing will stop me.
If I can do it, anyone can do it. With a full-time job and just a bicycle for transport. I will do what I have to do to be the best athlete I can be, and raise the money we need to get us a speed wall, to stay in this wonderful sport for as long as possible.
I’m after it every hour of every day. I feel that this is the life I was supposed to lead.
I am not social.
I am very introverted.
Extremely shy. In my preschool report card it said: “Aniya likes climbing the jungle gym by herself.”
I feel like that’s still me. I’m just here, quietly climbing my rock.
I wake up early and train with just my training partner.
I come home after work and stretch by myself before bed all year.
I am focused and dedicated to my one goal.
I go about my life quietly and diligently, without comparison until the day of competition. Then I compare how much better I am now to what I was previously.
— A. W. Holder
Instagram - @aniya_in_a_climbing_world