It’s been a whirlwind couple of weeks for one of our valued Trustees, Shauna Coxsey, as she picked up two very different types of titles. Not only was she named in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list and rewarded with the honour of an MBE to add to her name, she also claimed the overall IFSC Boulder World Cup Title, becoming the first Brit to do so in the 17-year history of the competition.
The 23-year old finished 2nd in the sixth round of the competition, held in Vail, Colorado. This added to her tally of four 1st place finishes gave her a grand total of 517 points. A staggering 147 more than that of her closest competitor, Japan’s Miho Nonaka.
The MBE was awarded in part due to her work with us as a Trustee of Climbers Against Cancer, as well as her other philanthropic projects as the Founder of the Women’s Climbing Symposium and her role as a BMC Ambassador. This combined with her exceptional season on the world’s climbing circuit was enough to see Shauna named on the prestigious list and become Shauna Coxsey MBE.
Understandably, Shauna was over the moon with her win, posting this on her Facebook page shortly after her win: “Oh wow. What a day! I can’t believe I have managed to secure the overall World title!! MBE and 1st in the World…WHAT?! I never imagined I would be where I am now. A HUGE THANK YOU to all of you for supporting me and following along on this crazy journey!”.
We’re both delighted for Shauna and immensely proud to call her a Trustee of our charity. Her hard work and dedication to the sport and its wider community is nothing short of inspiring. Hopefully she’ll get the chance to display some of that passion and skill at the Olympic games in the near future… The decision as to whether Sport Climbing will be included in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics is expected on the 3rd August.
Olympics or not, we look forward to seeing what’s next for Shauna and of course the defence of her title in 2017. Keep up the good work, and keep on climbing against cancer!
