Perth – Johannesburg- Innsbruck-Paris – Mukheibir training for Gold
The last month has been a whirlwind of activity and hard training for young 22-year old Sport Climber, Lauren Mukheibir.
Returning to SA from Perth at the beginning of the month she made the decision to train right the way through and past the Innsbruck World Cup which is taking place 26 – 30 June as she readies herself mentally and physically for the main event – the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in July.
Mukheibir will be competing in the Boulder and Lead categories at the Olympic Games. Lead involves a 16m high wall and a route worth 100 points and the Boulder category has four boulders each worth 25 points. Once both rounds are completed, the scores are combined to create a score out of 200 to determine your placement.
“I train about 20 hours a week - 10 hours of climbing and 10 hours of strength training; it’s what my body can handle. Climbing at such a high level requires so much confidence and bravery,” she says.
Mukheibir, who will be one of four climbers going to Paris, says as soon as she arrived home earlier this month she started an intense lead training programme to build endurance as fast as possible to prepare her for Paris and Innsbruck. As a priority she also re connected with her bio and physio to keep her in top physical shape. “I am doing Innsbruck to help me deal with competition nerves, gain some more international experience and put to use what I have learnt over the last couple of months. As such, doing well in Innsbruck is not my priority. It will be a competition to test where I stand, mentally and physically,” she says.
Once Innsbruck is out the way she plans to compete in a local competition in Cape Town which will be great practice and preparation for the big day in Paris. She will train until the 23rd July when the team leaves for Paris.
Mukheibir says one of the biggest challenges athletes face locally is managing expenses before they get to Paris. In Mukheibir’s case she says while she is so incredibly grateful and proud to be selected, every training session, physio appointment, doctors’ appointment, equipment replacement and any traveling beforehand to prepare for the competitions needs to be covered personally. “In my case I have to pay for myself. I am paying for the Innsbruck World Cup with no help from any government or national federation and because of all my travels, the bills can become quite overwhelming. But I just have to say a HUGE thanks to my parents for supporting me emotionally, physically and financially through this where needed.”
She says modestly that she would welcome any donation, however small, to help her prepare for Paris. “For those who have donated so far a huge thank you. Your generosity has helped pay for many weeks of training in Perth and physio appointments up to now. Thank you to those who have donated!”
The athletes will shortly be receiving their SA Olympic kit which will be another huge milestone.
If you would like to support Lauren she has a BackaBuddy account to help her raise money for her pre-Olympic training.
You can go to https://www.backabuddy.co.za/campaign/lauren-mukheibir-5803519010815031387
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