There’s a purity to sport climbing. By removing the need to protect a route during the ascent, the climber is free to focus on the puzzle posed by the rock before them. This puzzle is broadly the same for every entrant: get to the top, connecting a series of bolts as you go.
This makes comparing the greatest sport climbers in history a tad more straightforward than, say, comparing the world’s greatest mountaineers. The variables involved with getting to the top of any given route are fewer and more controllable. You either can climb it, joining the dots set out by whoever dreamed up the project, or you can’t.
The sheer (in more ways than one) difficulty of the routes that the very elite have managed to send are almost beyond comprehension. There’s the pros, and then there’s those few who have operated, or are operating, some way beyond – a handful of legends with the focus, fitness, grit and technique to have climbed their way into the history books. This feature is a celebration of nine of these pioneers, each among the finest to have ever graced the rock.
The greatest sport climbers in history
Here is our, by no means exhaustive, list of some of the greatest sport climbers in history, including the contemporary greats who are pushing the limits of what's possible.
For more detail on each climber's achievements, click the links or scroll down the feature. The grades of their landmark climbs are often given; if necessary, see our guide on climbing rating systems for context.
Lynn Hill: American sport climbing pioneer who broke down barriers at a time when the sport was dominated by men.
Catherine Destivelle: French legend, multiple times world champion, first woman to climb a 8a+ route and later an accomplished mountaineer.
Wolfgang Güllich: German great who revolutionized rock climbing before his untimely death in 1992.
Chris Sharma: American legend who has sent some of the hardest climbs in history and popularized deep water soloing.
Tommy Caldwell: More famous for his big wall exploits, Caldwell is a sport climbing great in his own right.
Adam Ondra: The unstoppable Czech climber, thought of by many as the greatest rock climber in the world today.
Janja Garnbret: The most successful female competition climber and the first woman to onsight an 8c (5.14b).
Margo Hayes: American who stunned the world with the first female 5.15a (9a+) climb on Spain’s La Rambla in 2017.
Sébastien Bouin: French sport climber vying with the likes of Sharma and Ondra at the top end of the game.
Meet the expert
Former President of the London Mountaineering Club, Alex is passionate about exciting outdoor pursuits. He enjoys all forms of climbing, whether trad, sport, scrambling, alpine mountaineering or taking on snow-covered peaks in winter.
What is sport climbing?
Sport climbing is a form of rock climbing that takes place on routes that are already protected by pre-installed bolts, as opposed to trad climbing, where the climber places protection into the rock as they go. Just as with trad climbing, the lead climber attaches quickdraws into the protection as they ascend, clipping the rope in and securing the route.
This approach allows sport climbers to concentrate more on the actual climbing, removing the added puzzle of where to place gear. This also means that sport climbing routes are more fixed, progressing between pre-determined points of safety. Many of sport’s elite climbers have installed routes of their own, dreaming up ever-more technical and difficult lines and challenging themselves and others to take their projects on.
Lynn Hill
One of the great American rock climbers, Lynn Hill is an icon. Born in Detroit in 1961, her decorated climbing career is almost unrivalled, with a string of hugely impressive achievements in big wall climbing, trad, sport, competition climbing and bouldering. At the top of her sport climbing game in the 80s, she enjoyed a friendly rivalry with French sensation Catherine Destivelle. The two would often compete for the top prizes in competition climbing and there was much public interest in their battles.
Outdoors, Hill was prolific, achieving a number of firsts on challenging sport climbing routes. In 1979, she free climbed Ophir Broke (5.12d) in Colorado, a hugely technical crack climb. It was the hardest route ever redpointed by a woman at that time. Many bold climbs followed, and Hill made a name for herself as a prodigious talent. Perhaps her greatest sport climbing achievement came in 1990, when she became the first female in history to redpoint a 8b+ (5.14a) graded climb on Masse Critique in Cimaï, France. This came after leading French climber Jean-Baptiste Tribout declared that ‘no woman would ever climb (a 5.14a)’. Not only did Hill successfully send it, she did so in fewer tries than Tribout.
However, in the 90s, like Desteville, Hill would turn her back on competition and sport climbing to seek out bigger, badder adventures. While Desteville set her sights on the great north faces of the Alps and the Greater Ranges, Hill made for Yosemite. She’d go on to achieve the first female free climb of El Cap’s The Nose in 1993, and again in 1994, completing the climb in less than 24 hours.
Catherine Destivelle
It’s testament to her incredible achievements that Catherine Destivelle appears on both our list of the greatest sport climbers and our list of the greatest mountaineers of all time. Her sport climbing career was at its height in the ’80s, when she’d often vie with Lynn Hill for the top spot both in terms of at competitions and in terms who was regarded the greatest climber. In the ’90s, she turned her attention to alpinism, pulling off stunning winter ascents of the north faces of the Grandes Jorasses, Eiger and Matterhorn, as well as impressive expeditions to the Himalayas and the Karakorum.
Her formative climbing experiences were in the cradle of bouldering: the Forest of Fontainebleau, to the southeast of Paris. She started climbing here in her teens and her talent led to competition and sport climbing in the ’80s. She now admits that she didn’t enjoy the pressure of competition, despite being crowned world champion at Sportroccia in 1985, 1986, 1988 and at Snowbird in 1989.
Her list of climbs during this period was mightily impressive but she reached her sport climbing pinnacle in 1988, becoming the first ever woman to climb an 8a+ (5.13c) route – the overhanging 25-meter Chouca, in Buoux, France. However, it wouldn’t be long before she swapped the crags for the big mountains, which had long been a dream. She’s most proud of her winter solo ascent of the Eiger in 1992.
Wolfgang Gullich
In 1992, Wolfgang Güllich tragically died in a car crash, having fallen asleep at the wheel while driving on Germany’s autobahn on his way back from an interview. He was just 31. However, such was the impression he made on the climbing world during his short life that he is thought of as one of the greats. He began climbing aged 13 and the pursuit would soon take hold.
Towards the end of the 1970s, he'd formed a formidable climbing partnership with Kurt Albert, who famously introduced the philosophy of ‘rotpunkt’ (redpointing), and the two lived together for 11 years, climbing all over the world. He achieved a number of firsts, most notably in 1991 when he sent Action Directe, an overhanging limestone route in Frankenjura, Germany, and the first ever 9a (5.14d) climb in the world.
Güllich was meticulous in his approach to training and conditioning. He’s often credited with the invention of the Campus Board, a piece of training equipment that’s virtually an ever-present in climbing gyms today. The equipment was actually devised by fellow climber Norbert Sandner, though Güllich's use of the board, in preparation from climbs like Action Directe, was what propelled it to popular use. Beyond sport climbing, he’d go on to set new standards on big walls across the world, from Patagonia’s Torres del Paine to the Trango Towers in Pakistan’s Karakorum.
Güllich’s sudden death on 31st August 1992, when he was at the peak of his powers, stunned the climbing community. His is a legacy that lives on in gyms around the globe and on the many routes he sent during his incredible but short career.
Chris Sharma
A sport climbing legend, Californian Chris Sharma has been at the peak of the rock-climbing world for decades. From establishing the world’s first 5.15a to popularizing the pursuit of deep water soloing, Sharma list of achievements is lengthy and hugely impressive.
He discovered his love for the vertical realm in Santa Cruz, at the Pacific Edge Climbing Gym, where he was recognized as a prodigious talent. He was a teenager when he started stamping his name into climbing folklore by free climbing Necessary Evil, a 5.14c route in the Virgin River Gorge. At the time it was the hardest sport climbing in North America.
Just a few years later, in 2001, he achieved a world first, climbing Biographie, an overhanging limestone cliff on Céüse, a mountain in France’s Hautes-Alpes. The route was the first consensus 9a+ (5.15a) ever climbed and Sharma renamed it Realization after his triumph.
Over the next two decades, Sharma repeatedly climbed right at the edge of what was previously thought possible. This included the first ascent of Jumbo Love in the Mojave Desert, then the world’s first 9b (5.15b), and the first repeat of La Dura Dura, his 9b+ (5.15c) project in Oliana, Spain, first climbed by fellow legend Adam Ondra just a month prior to Sharma. This collaboration between arguably the two greatest sport climbers of all time brought significant attention to the route.
With his ascent of the 9a+ (5.15a) Es Pontas in Mallorca, Sharma brought greater renown to the pursuit of deep water soloing, which involves free soloing highly technical routes above the relative safety net of deep water. He names Es Pontas, a climb that takes on the underbelly of a majestic arch above the Mediterranean Sea, as his signature deep water solo route.
Sharma’s talent has propelled him into the public eye. He performed the climbing scenes in the 2015 remake of cult classic motion picture Point Break. More recently in 2023, alongside childhood friend Jason Momoa (the Game of Thrones and Aquaman actor no less!) he developed The Climb, an HBO climbing competition series. He also owns a number of climbing gyms in both California and Spain.
Tommy Caldwell
Undoubtedly best known for his success on Dawn Wall and the subsequent, critically-acclaimed documentary film, Colorado-born Tommy Caldwell is a superstar of the climbing world. What made Caldwell and partner Kevin Jorgeson’s climb so impressive was that it was the first big wall 9a (5.14d) free climb in history, conquering the sheer, huge and blank Dawn Wall on the iconic El Capitan.
However, as well as being a big wall legend, Caldwell is a pioneering sport climber in his own right, having achieved a number of staggering first ascents throughout the US. In 2003, he sent Flex Luthor at Colorado’s Fortress of Solitude, which has been touted as being around the 5.15b (9b) mark. The climb went unrepeated for 18 years until October 2021, when Matty Hong claimed the second ascent.
Adam Ondra
Thought by many to be the greatest in the world today, Czech climber Adam Ondra has been climbing since the tender age of three years old. By the time he was nine, he’d already redpointed an 8a (5.13b). It was clear that the young Ondra was destined for great things. By the time he was 28, he’d climbed more ‘9a-and-harder’ routes than anyone in history, with over 200.
There are far too many notable climbs to go into here, though his journey has taken him to many hallowed places. In 2008, he redpointed Action Directe, the 9a (5.14d) in Germany made famous by Wolfgang Güllich’s first ascent. In 2013, he took on the challenge of Chris Sharma’s La Dura Dura (9b+, 5.15c) in Oliana, Spain, achieving a first ascent a month before Sharma managed it.
Following Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson’s success on the Dawn Wall, Ondra set about climbing it himself in 2016, taking just eight days and leading every pitch. For context, it had taken Caldwell and Jorgeson 19 days. However, Ondra admitted that his effort didn’t compare to the first ascent as he hadn’t had to solve the puzzle of how to climb it in the first place. Then, in 2017, he became the first person in history to climb a 9c (5.15d) on Silence, a 45-meter route on an overhanging granite cave in Norway. The climb has yet to be repeated.
All the while, Ondra was racking up an impressive medal tally in competition events, including 22 golds. He recently suffered disappointment at the Paris 2024 Olympics, finishing 6th in the boulder and lead combined event. He later admitted that it felt ‘bitter’ that his generation hadn’t had the opportunity to compete at the Olympics when they were in their teens and early 20s.
Janja Garnbret
Slovenian Janja Garnbret is considered the greatest female competition climber of all time. At the age of 25, she’s already racked up two Olympic gold medals and has been World Champion eight times. Her 2019 season was particularly remarkable, sweeping the board by winning every major competition she entered, including a trio of golds for lead, boulder and combined at the World Championships in Japan, the first climber to achieve such a triumvirate.
However, she’s also a formidable outdoor climber, being the first ever woman to onsight an 8c (5.14b) graded sport route, when she climbed Fish Eye, a classic 50-meter test of endurance in Oliana, Spain, in November 2021. A few years prior to this, in 2017, she sent her first 9a (5.14d) routes on Seleccio Natural and La Fabela pa la Enmienda in Santa Linya, Spain.
After successfully defending her combined Olympic title at the 2024 games, who’s to say what Garnbret will go on to achieve next.
Margo Hayes
In 2017, aged just 19, Margo Hayes, from Boulder, Colorado, shot to rock climbing stardom when she climbed La Rambla, a sport climbing route in Siurana, Spain. Graded 5.15a (9a+), the 150-foot limestone route is the hardest ever climbed by a woman. La Rambla’s sustained 30-degree overhang and razor-sharp rock make it a technical challenge beyond most elite climbers. The climb took true grit and determination, as emphasized by climbing partner Jon Caldwell after the climb: ‘She was bleeding from her fingers every day… Extraordinary character in that girl.’ However, in the lead up to this remarkable feat, Hayes had sent a variety of 5.14 routes during a prolific spell that won her Climbing Magazine’s Golden Piton award for sport climbing.
Born in Boulder, Hayes always seemed destined for great things on rock. She was born with adventure pedigree too: her grandfather, Dr James Morrissey, led the successful American 1983 expedition to be the first to climb Everest’s Kangshung Face. Six members of the team summitted, though Morrissey was not among them. A talented gymnast, Hayes began her climbing journey aged 10 and joined Boulder’s prestigious Team ABC. There, she was coached by the great Robyn Erbesfield-Raboutou.
Sebastien Bouin
Frenchman Séb Bouin is one of only a clutch of climbers competing and collaborating with the likes of Sharma and Ondra on the world’s hardest sport climbing routes today. He has a number of first ascents and first repeats to his name, having been particularly prolific since 2019. In 2022, he climbed his DNA project in France’s spectacular Verdon Gorge after over 250 attempts, grading it 9c (15.5d). This made it only the second in the world at the grade, after Adam Ondra’s Silence.
In the same year, Bouin took on Sharma’s Jumbo Love in the US but he mixed things up with a more difficult, direct start. Having completed the climb, he named it Suprême Jumbo Love and graded it 9b+ (5.15c) – making it North America’s hardest climb.
