UKC

As we reflect on an eventful IFSC World Championships in Bern, Switzerland, John Burgman tells the story of the country's unsung competition climbing heroine.

Swiss climber and two-time world champion Susi Good ruled the competition scene in the early 1990s…then she suddenly walked away. What happened?

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Great article. I'd love to hear more about the characters of world cup climbing history. 

Great article. Life must have been much more fulfilling for her with new career challenges and four children, rather than doing interminable pullups in hotel rooms. I was very active in the 90´s, read all the mags, and had always wondered what she had gotten up to after disappearing from the competition scene. All the best to her, and thanks for the article!

Pretty poor that a writer whose job it is to write about competition climbing doesn’t know who the first winner of the men’s World Cup was.

Jerry Moffat, legend that he is, was never an overall winner. It was Simon Nadin, in 1989. Jerry was 3rd overall but famously won the event held in Leeds.

Surely a writer about comps should know? It’s only a Google away after all. If the writer hasn’t fact checked something as basic this, maybe other points haven’t been checked either.

Worth adding that the women’s result is wrong too. In1989 Nanette Raybaud won, not Robyn Erbesfield. Erbesfield didn’t win till 1992.

Seems a bit harsh on the author. It wasn't the main focus of the story, just a historical sidenote. As far as I can make out from a quick Google, it's not so much complete nonsense as a slip on the terminology. It looks like Jerry Moffatt and Robyn Erbesfield won the first event of the 1989 World Cup series.

Incidentally, this old Guardian article I came across in the process is wonderful. An interesting mix of the usual silly descriptions from a non-climber and some actually mildly insightful remarks on the (still ongoing!) tensions in the BMC over competition climbing.

https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2012/nov/20/climbing-world-cup-simo...

Agreed

Although I'm not particularly interested in competition climbing, I did enjoy this article.

It's also common to refer to people as having won two World Cups this year, or some such. World Cup Event and World Cup Series have always both been commonly shortened just to World Cup, in more casual reference at least.

Edit: There's a good anaolgy with motor racing. You can win a Grand Prix without winning the Grand Prix title.

Thanks for that..... an interesting pointed article with a great Grauniad eggcorn typo as a bonus.

People tend to distinguish between individual rounds and series wins using 'World Cup wins' and 'overall/World Cup series wins'.I can edit for clarity, but John's not wrong. 

Yeah, and the article is actually consistent in referring to each single event as a 'World Cup'. I've no idea whether that's actually wrong or just different from what Jonathan was expecting. As you say, it's not uncommon for the terminology to get a bit ambiguous with events like this.

Thats because there isn't a grand prix title. The constructors / drivers compete for their respective "Formula 1 World Championship".

The naming could certainly be less ambiguous in climbing. While each individual event is a World Cup, there doesnt seem to be an offical name for the winner of the annual series of world cups; the IFSC website, for example, just lists Janja Garnbret as being ranked first in the 2021 "IFSC Climbing World Cup - Boulder".

Thanks. He should be clearer. Robyn Erbesfield and Jerry won the first round events of the 89 World Cup, but the big prize is the World Cup itself and that went to Nanette Raybaud and Simon, which is not at all what an uninformed reader would understand from the opening paragraph.

Fair point Luke that I’m being harsh, but if your job is to write on comps, having a misleading opening paragraph is not good.

That's a fantastic article. The journalist has a remarkable talent for predicting the future!