is a Japanese professional

rock climber Rock climbing is a sport in which participants climb up, across, or down natural rock formations. The goal is to reach the summit of a formation or the endpoint of a usually pre-defined route without falling. Rock climbing is a physically and ...

who specializes in competition climbing and the disciplines of

competition lead climbing A climbing competition (or comp) is usually held indoors on purpose built climbing walls. There are three main types of climbing competition: lead, speed, and bouldering. In lead climbing, the competitors start at the bottom of a route and must c ...

and

competition bouldering A climbing competition (or comp) is usually held indoors on purpose built climbing walls. There are three main types of climbing competition: lead, speed, and bouldering. In lead climbing, the competitors start at the bottom of a route and must c ...

. At the

2019 IFSC Climbing World Championships The 2019 IFSC Climbing World Championships, the 16th edition, were held in Hachioji, Japan from 11 to 21 August 2019. The championships consisted of lead, speed, bouldering, and combined events. The paraclimbing event was held separately from 1 ...

, she became the youngest Japanese athlete to finish in a podium place in the competition, third in

lead Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cu ...

. She has won Japan Cup titles in both bouldering and lead disciplines and has multiple IFSC Climbing World Cup podium finishes, including three gold medals in World Cup events in the 2022 season. At the

2023 IFSC Climbing World Championships The 2023 IFSC Climbing World Championships, the 18th edition, was held in Bern, Switzerland from 1 to 12 August 2023. The competition climbing championships consisted of lead, speed, bouldering, and boulder & lead combined events, along with the ...

, Mori won the gold medal in lead, becoming the first Japanese athlete to win a World Championships lead title.

Climbing career

In 2016, Mori won Lead Japan Cup, becoming the youngest winner of the competition at age 12. She has repeated as the national lead champion in 2018, 2020, 2021, and 2022. Mori also won the Boulder Japan Cup in 2021 and finished second place in 2018. Mori made her senior international competition climbing debut in 2019, winning two bronze medals in lead and one in bouldering

World Cups A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

. Later that year, at age 15, she placed third in the lead category at the IFSC Climbing World Championships, becoming the youngest Japanese climber to medal at the World Championship. Akiyo Noguchi had held the previous record with her 2005 bronze medal in lead at age 16. In November and December 2019, Mori finished fifth in the combined category at the Olympic qualifying event in

Toulouse Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Par ...

, France. However, Japan had already filled its athlete quota for the

2020 Olympic Games The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the 1 ...

, so Mori did not compete at the Games despite finishing in qualifying places. In September 2022, Mori took first place at the World Cup event in

Koper Koper (; it, Capodistria, hr, Kopar) is the fifth largest city in Slovenia. Located in the Istrian region in the southwestern part of the country, approximately five kilometres () south of the border with Italy and 20 kilometres () from Triest ...

, Slovenia, finishing ahead of second-place finisher

Janja Garnbret Janja Garnbret (born March 12, 1999) is a Slovenian rock climbing, rock climber and sport climber who has won multiple lead climbing and bouldering events at climbing competitions. In 2021, she became the first ever female Olympic gold medalist in ...

, who had won all four lead World Cups of the season coming into Koper. Mori was competing in her first World Cup event of the year, and her first international event of any kind since the 2020 Olympic qualifying event in 2019. She followed this up with first-place finishes in another two World Cups events, at the lead event in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

, Scotland, and the season-ending combined boulder and lead event in

Morioka is the capital city of Iwate Prefecture located in the Tōhoku region of northern Japan. On 1 February 2021, the city had an estimated population of 290,700 in 132,719 households, and a population density of . The total area of the city is . ...

, Japan. In 2023, Mori took part in the

and became the world champion in lead, becoming the first Japanese athlete to win a world title in the discipline. She also qualified for the

2024 Olympics ) , nations = TBA , athletes = 10,500 ''(quota limit)'' , events = 329 in 32 sports (48 disciplines) , opening = 26 July 2024 , closing = 11 August 2024 , opened_by = , stadium = Stade de France Jardins du Trocadéro and River Seine , summe ...

by placing third in the combined event.

Japan Cup The is one of the most prestigious horse races in Japan. It is contested on the last Sunday of November, post time of 15:40 at Tokyo Racecourse in Fuchu, Tokyo at a distance of 2400 meters (about miles) run under weight for age conditions with ...

World Cup podiums

Lead

Bouldering

Combined (Boulder & Lead)

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mori, Ai 2003 births Living people Sportspeople from Ibaraki Prefecture Japanese female climbers Japanese rock climbers IFSC Climbing World Championships medalists Sport climbers at the 2024 Summer Olympics Sport climbers at the 2022 Asian Games Asian Games gold medalists for Japan Asian Games medalists in sport climbing Medalists at the 2022 Asian Games 21st-century Japanese women Japanese competition climbers

Climbing career

Rankings

World Cup

World Championships

World Youth Championships