Ievgeniia (Jenya) Serikivna Kazbekova ( uk, Євгенія Серіківна Казбекова, born 15 October 1996) is a Ukrainian

competition climber 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 ...

. She competed in the women's combined event at the

2024 Summer Olympics The 2024 Summer Olympics (french: Jeux olympiques d'été de 2024), officially the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad (french: Jeux de la XXXIIIe Olympiade, links=no) and also known as Paris 2024, is an upcoming international multi-sport event that is s ...

in Paris.

Family and early life

Kazbekova was born in 1996 in

Dnipro Dnipro, previously called Dnipropetrovsk from 1926 until May 2016, is Ukraine's fourth-largest city, with about one million inhabitants. It is located in the eastern part of Ukraine, southeast of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on the Dnieper Rive ...

. Her grandparents were climbers; her grandmother won the championship of the Soviet Union in a competition in Crimea, the same place where her parents, and , met and later owned a hotel. Perlova herself was a competition climber, the Ukrainian champion, and the 2002 overall bouldering world cup winner. Her father won a silver medal in speed climbing at the

1993 UIAA Climbing World Championships The 1993 UIAA Climbing World Championships, the 2nd edition, were held in Innsbruck Innsbruck (; bar, Innschbruck, label=Bavarian language, Austro-Bavarian ) is the capital of Tyrol (state), Tyrol and the List of cities and towns in Austria, ...

Innsbruck Innsbruck (; bar, Innschbruck, label=Bavarian language, Austro-Bavarian ) is the capital of Tyrol (state), Tyrol and the List of cities and towns in Austria, fifth-largest city in Austria. On the Inn (river), River Inn, at its junction with the ...

, Austria. Her parents regularly brought Kazbekova to competitions with them, and Perlova recalls Kazbekova already scrambling on the rocks of Crimea at the age of seven months, on family climbing trips there. In early 2022, due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine escalating the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War, Kazbekova, her parents, and younger sister Rafael Kazbekova (herself a competition climber) fled Kyiv for Germany. She has continued to be a prominent and staunch advocate for Ukrainian interests in the climbing world. In part in response to her efforts, in 2022, the International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC) cancelled several events scheduled to be held in Russia, and suspended all Russian athletes from their competitions. Kazbekova's family later moved to Manchester, England. , Kazbekova is primarily based in Salt Lake City in the US, where the US climbing team trains.

Climbing career

, Kazbekova's highest-level international competition climbing result is fourth place in bouldering 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 has been the Ukrainian champion from 2012 to 2021. Outdoors, she redpointed her first graded

sport climbing Sport climbing (or Bolted climbing) is a form of rock climbing that relies on permanent anchors (or bolts), permanently fixed into the rock for climber protection, in which a rope that is attached to the climber is clipped into the anchors to ...

route at age eight, and her first graded route at age 11. She has solved the graded bouldering problem called ''Partage'' in

Fontainebleu Fontainebleau (; ) is a commune in the metropolitan area of Paris, France. It is located south-southeast of the centre of Paris. Fontainebleau is a sub-prefecture of the Seine-et-Marne department, and it is the seat of the ''arrondissement'' ...

in France, the sport climbing route ''Pati Naso'' in Siurana in Spain, and the graded sport route ''Güllich'' at the Redstone crag in Crimea (and as the

first female free ascent In mountaineering, a first ascent (abbreviated to FA in guide books) is the first successful, documented attainment of the top of a mountain or the first to follow a particular climbing route. First mountain ascents are notable because they ent ...

) in 2017. Kazbekova was one of the contenders for a place in sport climbing at the 2020 Summer Olympics, but fell short after a knee injury and illness prevented her from showing her best. Through competing in the

2024 Olympic Qualifier Series The 2024 Olympic Qualifier Series was a sporting event held in May and June 2024 in Shanghai and Budapest, respectively. This two-part series was the inaugural edition of a multi-sport Olympic qualifying event, which determined the athletes who wi ...

in Shanghai and Budapest, Kazbekova won a place in the women's combined bouldering and lead climbing event of sport climbing at the 2024 Summer Olympics. At the Olympics, she placed 14th in both the bouldering and lead semifinals of the combined event.

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Kazbekova, Jenya 1996 births Living people Sportspeople from Dnipro Ukrainian competition climbers 21st-century Ukrainian sportswomen Sport climbers at the 2024 Summer Olympics Ukrainian female climbers Boulder climbers