We were talking with the lead team, but it was more like, ha, your route is hard?
Yes, it's hard. For example, that was the conversation. Nothing more. All of the females
can reach. Is it for sure not more for? And we were checking like really a lot of times,
and we put a lot of, a lot of tension about it. I never consider pregnancy as a disability,
and I really wanted to continue my climbing even if I'm pregnant.
During the first day of setting, like I skipped the first day because I was in the hospital, but
I was barely able to walk on the first floor in the hotel.
Welcome to another episode of the That's Not Real Climbing podcast. I'm your host Jinni,
and I'm excited to introduce my guest for today, Olga Niemiec. Olga is an official IFSC route setter,
and she recently came back from Paris where she helped set the Olympic boulder rounds. In this
episode, we'll learn about what it takes to become an IFSC setter, what it was like setting
at the Olympics and trying to make the rounds fair, and how she balances setting, training,
and travel all while being a single mother. It's insane. I hope you enjoy this episode with Olga.
How was your vacation after the Olympics, after Paris?
I took one week of holidays in Portugal, and that was good. That was good, quite calm. I was just
surfing, no climbing at all. So that was a pleasure. How long have you been surfing?
I'm totally beginner. I guess it's kind of my second love, and I really want to
go for it as often as possible. Yeah, I mean, it's a little bit hard for you to get
opportunities to surf, I assume. You live in, I guess, where do you live right now? Poland.
Yeah, it doesn't really seem like a surfing location. Not really. I have one hour to the
mountains and six to the sea. So hard to get practice in. I just tried surfing for the second
time a few weeks ago, and it is fun. I think I get it. I might try to get into it. It's just great.
Yeah, maybe one day we can try it sometime. That would be awesome. Yeah, so let's get right into it.
How long have you been climbing, and how did you get into climbing? I've been climbing since I was a kid.
Both of my parents are climbers. So I started, I was barely walking when I started climbing.
But yeah, because my parents were taking me to the crags, and they were climbing, and I was just hanging around.
But I started climbing, like, well, I wanted to start climbing when I was around seven, I guess.
And until that time, I'm climbing with a few breaks in between. And then you also used to
compete a bit yourself, right? Correct. When I was a kid, when I was seven, I've already started to
train with a small group of the kids in Poland. And we already started also to compete in the
competition in Poland, as kids. Yeah, so since always.
Okay, so you're kind of like a team kid too. Yes, it's kind of funny. I started actually with the group
where was Marcin Szoek, another EFSC road setter right now. And we are in the same group with the kids,
because we are from the same city. Okay, so how long did you compete for?
Well, I stopped after one and a half, two years, more or less, and he was continuing climbing.
Yeah, because I was interested in different stuff at that time. And then I came back again after a
one year break, and they were way better than me. So I joined a different group, and then I was
climbing one or two years, and I stopped again for one or two years. And I was like, go.
Today's in Camelback, and it was like, I don't know. I've never climbed like full three times in years.
So you didn't have competition climbing aspirations as an athlete?
I did. But when I was around 14, 15, 16, and that time I was competing a lot in the Polish Cups,
Polish Junior Cups. I was on the podium. Then I turned to be senior, and I was still competing
as a senior. And I was also competing in the finals. Yeah, basically all the time in the finals of the
national competition. Did you ever do international competitions?
No, just once. I was not ready. It was just three spots, and I just took this spot. And then so I
competed in the World Cup one time, but I was almost last, I guess. But I fell from hard
holders on the top, so not so far. Yeah, but the result was good.
Nothing wrong with that. How did you make the decision to retire from competing and I guess
eventually get into route setting? So when I was that time, when I was 15,
I was also snowboarding, and I was in the national team of snowboard. And so I was competing in two
sports in the same time in winter, more on the board, summer more climbing. And I was more focused
on snowboard, even joined to the Olympic team. I qualified for Olympic Games in snowboard, and I
and I quick, like half six months before in peaks, I don't know, maybe eight months before.
Because we didn't agree with my coach, it was a big problem. And I said, like, I don't want to
do it anymore. I just want to climb. And I quit from snowboard. And so, yes, beginning of the
then I started climbing. And I was focused just on climbing. Whoa, wait. Okay, so I had no idea
about this whole snowboarding thing. So you were going to be an Olympic snowboarder? Yeah.
Wow. So you were doing like, you were competing in two different things at once, I guess. That's
kind of a lot to handle. Yeah, but that time snowboard was like the first sport for me.
I was really focused on that. And climbing was like just my passion. And I just love to do it.
And it was just on the side, let's say. So when I was competing, I was going to the finals,
but never with the huge success because it was not what I was focused about. Yeah. And I stopped
snowboarding when I was 21. So it was already a bit too late for real career as a fiber athlete.
Well, I guess you at least eventually made it to the Olympics in some way. So that's really cool.
So at what age did you get into route setting?
In one point, we had a huge international competition in Poland. And I was already
competing in this competition in previous years. So I was expecting I would be in the finals.
But I knew during the final day of the competition, I will be already in Spain for outdoor climbing,
because I bought the tickets to Spain before they announced the competition date.
So I really wanted to be a part of this competition. And I felt like, OK, if I can compete,
maybe I can set the competition. But why not? And I asked my friend, who was the organizer,
maybe it's possible to join. And he said, OK, I will ask the chief. I think yes. But let's see.
And the chief agreed. My friend agreed. And that's how I ended up in the team.
OK. Yeah, it's kind of crazy that they just let you set just from asking,
not knowing how your setting was before then.
I think they didn't know I never set.
Yeah. I mean, you'd think they would be able to tell once you started setting the first time.
I don't know. Nobody said nothing. They were to focus on their brothers.
And that was cool. I mean, they knew that I'm a good climber. My climbing level is high enough
to set this kind of competition. So I think that time nobody really thought about it,
about experience and setting. The team was experienced. I was, of course, working for free.
So they just said, OK, go for it.
So was that actually like literally your first time setting ever?
Yes. Yes. Yes. And it was a big competition with international athletes, like really good.
That time that was Ruptov, he was winning the World Cups and he registered.
So one of that leaves and a few different people. So for me, it was a huge event.
But even from Poland, it was quite big.
Do you remember what you were feeling at the time as you were setting your first time?
Yeah, because I didn't know what should I expect then. I had no expectations before.
And I just wanted to have a fun and climb on the final boulders. That was my goal.
And it turned out it's something what I like to do in my life.
Yeah. And I think I was surprised how nice is it, how fun is it, how good is it,
how big pleasure I can have during the setting and during the competition days.
And I just remember it was a good time for me.
I still just can't really wrap my head around how you set finals boulders your first time,
because I've only tried route setting once. And I had an idea in mind of a move I wanted to set,
or maybe how I wanted something to feel, but it just didn't come through at all.
How did you make that happen the first time?
Well, I don't know exactly what was in my head that time. I guess I've just put the
holes on the wall. I tried to find a nice section in between them, I guess. But it was not really,
I want this move and I tried to put them the move on the wall. I don't think so. It was this way.
It's randomly I worked like that. So maybe it was just a freestyle. I liked it.
Okay. I guess maybe it comes naturally to you somehow.
I don't know. I think it's easier if you're an athlete, you were an athlete,
you know what you expect. You exactly know the level of the boulder which should be on the wall.
So it's a bit more natural than to come from nowhere and try to set the boulder
where you don't actually know the level of the...
Yeah, okay. Yeah, that makes sense. So then when did you become an IFSC route setter?
It happened in 2021. I got an official appointment as a junior route setter.
Okay. So how did you get that? I think me and a lot of other listeners don't really know
the process for becoming an official IFSC route setter. I think also a lot of people don't
know that there is a difference between official IFSC route setters and I guess just setters who
set for a few World Cups. So can you sort of explain the difference between official setters
and how you, I guess, got that junior setting license?
So we have a pool of around 40 international IFSC route setters.
And we are able to set the World Cups, World Championships, youth competition, etc., etc.
And each year we are nominated to set around two competitions per person.
And these nominations are fully made by IFSC. They are official. You can find them on the IFSC
website. If you are not an IFSC route setter, you can't be nominated by the International Federation.
You can, like now, now the few years ago process was not super clear. Now it's really clear. And
it said that if you, like exactly this year, a lot of things changed. So I'm not sure if I should
tell you how it is exactly now or how it was when I was started. I was starting out in the
first year. So now the system has been changed and we have the levels. So there is level one,
two, three and four of IFSC route setters. Level, starting from level four, that means you can be
the chief or the World Cups or the high level competition, like Olympic Games or World Championships.
And level three, you mean you can be the part of the team of the highest level competition,
but also you can be chief of the lowest round competition, like European Cups or Asian Cups.
Level two means you can be chief of the continental Cups, but like you are not nominated,
you don't, you won't have nominations for the World Cups. So it's like level lower.
Level one means you can't be the chief of the continental Cups, but you can be the part of the team.
So yeah, for like level two, maybe not like chiefing World Cups, but can you still set at World Cups?
Okay, so from down, so level one, you can be the team of the continental Cups. Level two,
you can be the chief of the continental Cups. Level three, you can be the chief of the
continental Cups, but also you can be the team member of the World Cups. Level four,
you can be the chief of the World Cups. Okay, cool. That makes sense. And so this is like brand new,
this year? Yes, it happened this year in February, I think. So they made this hierarchy and it's full,
um, everything gets on the website of the FSC page. So you can find it, like everybody can find it.
And then, then at least with the names and the levels, which, which they get. Um, for that,
we didn't have levels. It was just the IFSC title. And that was level three and level four,
they was together, but separated by like chief EFSC, the IFSC chiefs and just IFSC road settles.
And level one, level two, it was, um, I think it was, um, managing by the European council,
IG council, et cetera, et cetera. So those road settles who were nominated for the continental
cups, they were not in the official pool, but somehow the names were written somewhere. But
I don't really how it was because I've never been in this European pool. So I can't really tell you
how it was before. All right. And so then how did you, you said you, um, got into it because you
had a junior setting license? Yes. So they created for a couple of years, like two or three maximum.
It was like junior, uh, my four years, sorry, but I don't really know, but it was a kind of the
junior title, junior EFSC. And that will, that was basically level three, or it was just like,
we were paid like normal EFSC, uh, EFSC status. We were nominated like normal EFSC status,
but we, it was kind of like, look, they are new. So it was like, I don't know, like the beginning,
beginning for us. So how did you get nominated? Just like someone else knew you who already had
an official license? I was, yes, I was setting the world caps before I got my nomination.
And so, um, yeah, I was, I was in a, in a, in the environment, if I can say so. Um,
and I got the recommendations from the other EFSC status. So then I guess how did you
set your first world cup? I'm just, I, I'm like pressing on this a lot, but I think it's because
a lot of people just even want to know how to like break into that, that kind of, uh, that kind of
job. I asked and they say yes. Okay. I'm sorry. Okay. I mean, now it's, it's really hard to do
this that way. And I have to sit right to make it really clear and try to make it a clear pathway
and create the path for the new roots that us would like to grow and to become an EFSC in the
future. And it makes sense to believe, um, as few years ago, it was more, or I don't know, more
freedom choosing who will be in the team. I mean, there were some people who were nominated
officially, but the rest of the team were, were, was, was chosen by organizer, organization,
rather chief could say, maybe we can take this or this person. So everything was more,
yeah. In between my friends, maybe not a good word, but, uh, it wasn't so clear and so obvious
and so far, let's say. And that's why now it's changed to be really far for everybody.
To give everybody the same chances to be a part of the world. I had this, this, this, um,
lucky that, uh, Martin was the chief and I asked Martin, maybe you want to take me. And he said,
okay, I will ask if, if, if organization, if I have to see the brief so you can join and, uh,
yeah, and I joined. All right. So then for people wondering, I guess, sometimes the answer is just
ask, but now there's, um, it's good to hear that they have more of a process now. So it's a bit
more clear. I think so. I mean, still there is still the pro there is a still way to ask,
but on the lower level. So now there are world caps, but, uh, there are still like continental
caps. You can try to set, um, like, first of all, you should put like, first of all, to be if I see
I FSC route, you need to have the national license. And of course I got it when, when I was
applying, like, this is the first step. So first you need to set national competition. Then once
you get your national license, try to set international competition and like step by step.
And I did it of course, uh, but quite fast. Yeah. Really impressive how fast you moved up the ranks,
I guess. Um, so you've set for both, um, Boulder world cups and lead world cups. Do you have a
preference of setting for one or the other? Not really. I think I miss now I miss lead a lot
because I didn't set an elite competition this year, but once I had a season with just one
builder competition and free lead, I was missing Boulder. So in, in yeah, I, I, I prefer to mix
them and to have, let's say to, to lead to a border competition per season. That would be perfect.
What do you like about each one? Um, he, I like the free spell, which we have as a team,
the vibes are different in the team. We are more, I don't know, more, it's more funny. It's,
it's more jokes. We, we, we are all together on the mat. So we are a group. Uh, we can,
yeah, we have a fun time together, like really cooperate in between. We can jump from one
burlar to the other, take a break, steering a car, whatever you want. So, so the vibes are
fully different in the lead. It's just me and somebody on one lift. And it's really intense
one hour together with one person or three hours sometimes. And we're really focused on the lead,
on the route. And we are like joking in between, of course, but it's different vibe. And the
whole process is longer. Uh, like you climb just more, most of the time, just one per day.
Uh, in border, you climb and jumped million times per day. So like the dynamic in the team is, is
totally different. And I like both. And so with the, um, Boulder setting, um, I feel like recently
I've been hearing more about like these Boulder setting guidelines. I don't know if that was just
for the Olympics or, um, if it's going to be for world cups as well. Um, they mentioned, you know,
it's like a power Boulder coordination, Boulder, balancey, um, electric, I forget all four of the
names. You can correct, correct, correct. Um, so was that just for the Olympics or is that going
forward? The new guidelines? Well, we've now with your question, I'm confused to be honest. Um,
so I know a lot of people will listen to us and I don't want to make the, I don't want to
give you the wrong answers. Uh, in my opinion, it was just for the combined competition.
So for those, which me, we also had the lead and we need to compare two disciplines together.
But I mean, I'm, but I'm not working in the IFC board. I don't know what will happen in next
in next season. I have no ideas about any decisions. So it's just from my experience, I can say
last year we didn't have a guy in last for the world cups, but this year we had guidelines for
the combined competition. And as far as I know, they need to use them during the world caps,
those guidelines. Okay. Okay. That's good to know. I don't know how it will be in next season.
06. Did you feel like with the guidelines, it's made setting easier or does it kind of hurt your
creativity? 07. Definitely annoying. Um, in the beginning, I was quite psyched and I was happy.
We have this clear four types of puller, which make the competition maybe more fair, but afterwards,
it's, it's, it's killing the creativity of the status. And, um, after this free competition in
a road, when I was forced to use, uh, uh, the same style of the bullers all over, all over, all over
again, it's really tiring. And I prefer to mix the styles more to try to balance the round,
try to balance the styles, but more reasonable. Don't put one coordination. It's, it's my,
in my opinion, it's better to mix it and to put, let's say coordination will start and then finish
the buller a pace square or a positive one. Yeah. So, uh, yeah, so I definitely, I hope we
won't have any guidelines next year, at least not so strict. So not really focus one style per buller,
but I don't know how it will end up. Are you worried that with this format, it's too easy
for the athletes to learn as well? Like they know what to expect and what to kind of train for?
Hmm. I don't think so. I, I, no, I don't, I don't think so. It's easy for them or easier or harder.
It's, it's like, you always have four problems. It's, it's always coordination somewhere. It's
always slap somewhere. It's always physical somewhere. So, so, it's, it's just, you have
one style in one buller. That's it. So we try to avoid the two coordination problems, for example,
one round. And we, when we don't have on guidelines, we can play tiny more. So, so we can put the
balance section on the different type of the wall than the slab. We can create the slab with the
volumes, for example, and make that the balance, the, the technical climbing, but with these
guidelines, we are always ending up with the balance slow slab, which we try to make a bit
fast. But like for me, it started to be all over the same. There was a lot of pressure at the
Olympics for the setting and creating equal setting between the boulder and lead rounds. And there
were also different setters for boulder versus for lead. So how do you make sure that the boulder
lead round is not too difficult one way or the other? Please excuse this brief intermission,
but I've gotten a few requests for this. So I just wanted to announce that if you're interested in
helping support the show, my Patreon page is now live. Some perks include ad free interruption
free episodes, deleted scenes, prioritized guest questions, or the ability to submit video questions
and enamel pin shipped to you after two months of membership and much more to come. The proceeds go
back into the podcast to help me break even. And they help improve the experience of the guests.
If you'd like to support the podcast non monetarily, liking, commenting, and sharing
helps a great deal as well. Back to the show. So that's why we had a guy in lines and that was
the different type of the game lines, not just the styles as also how many tops do you want? How many
points for first, second, third place, etc, etc, etc. How many tops you want in whole around?
How many people will go to the second zone first? So like this all statistics were in the game lines.
And thanks to that, we didn't need to really communicate in between, we just tried to fit
in the guidelines with our predictions. And that's why the guidelines was created to make our job
easier. And it worked for sure. So we knew how we knew which kind of results we we expecting.
And we knew if we will fit in the guideline with these expectations, and the lead will
fit with their expectations, exactly in their guidelines, then we will be we will like meet in
the proper balance in between two disciplines. Do you know what the lead guidelines were?
Oh, no, I don't remember. But like similar. So like, I don't know, first place in between.
I don't I don't know 95 100 points. And then second place in between this and this points,
first place, fourth place, etc, etc, etc. So they were like trying to reach this whole that for
for for for each place, like to reach them down the good number with the points.
So like, I think for Boulder, you mentioned that they have to you kind of say like, what percentage
you think will get 510 or 25 points? Did it work out to the percentages that you were expecting? Or
were there any big surprises there? For sure not not not in each round. So for example, the men's
semi final was too hard. I mean, we can see it when you were watching it, and you need to see
the guidelines to know it. So yes, we didn't fit the guidelines because it was slightly too hard.
But I don't really now I didn't have I would need to have a paper and to see the results again,
and to refresh it. Because I'm not really good in statistics. I'm not really good in thinking
how many no, no, no, no, no, no, more emotional person. So I do not know, surely if we feed
perfectly. But to be honest, I don't think so, because it's really hard to do it. And this is
just a guideline. It's not something what we have to do. It's like, it would be nice if you can
reach this goal. But it's not like, it's not now I know just French word obligatory, sorry.
So like, for example, for men's semis, if the boulder was too hard, do you then go and talk to
the lead setters and they adjust it so that lead is like, equally as hard or they make it a bit
more difficult? No, no, no, no, we had this unwritten rule that once the boulder round started,
the lead team is not touching the lead route. So whatever will happen on the boulder side,
they won't change anything on the lead. And that's enough. Otherwise, they can turn the results.
So like I said, oh, we have this and this. Okay, let's let's I don't know, make the route harder.
Like it's opening the door for cheating. Like, oh, this guy made a bouldering, let's make this
section easier and gave him more points. You know what I mean? It's opening the unsure results.
So they didn't, they never, they never changed the route after the boulder round.
Okay, I see how it could open it to cheating. But then I guess people also might be upset that,
oh, like it favors lead or, or I guess it wouldn't favor lead specialists, but that it favors.
Wait, how does this work? Wait, yeah, it gets confusing. Okay, so if the if the lead round is
easier, then it's like it goes against the lead specialists.
Yeah, not really. Because let's say when the guy, one guy who is, who is not the list specialist,
oh no, I know, I know, I know how you can do it. So you can put just turn up the lead route and
make the cracks in the lead route. And then everybody will fall in the white point or most
of them will fall. And doesn't matter if you're a lead specialist or not, you will fall in,
you will fall somewhere. So for the boulders, it's, it's, it's, it's not really good to,
to fall on that. I don't know, number 20. But if you're a medium lead, you also fall in this point.
Or you can make the section easier to, to, to push the lead guys higher. It makes sense.
Yeah. I think that makes sense. But I guess I, it seems I get confused by it anyway.
For sure you can play with the results. For sure. Like you can easily do it. If you know,
if you already know the places from one to 10, you can know, oh, this guy is really poor in
crimps. Let's put this crimp, uh, better, worse, whatever side you prefer, but you can really
create that potentially dangerous situation when you play with who will win or not.
I mean, they try to avoid this situation. They try to avoid somebody who will come and say,
Hey, you change it just, just half an hour before maybe you want to do this or this or this or this
athlete. So to avoid any suspicions, it's like, it's done. We didn't see the, the puller round.
We didn't know what will happen. We had this scenario, but we are not touching the roots.
And that's why we had the guidelines. So if, if you, if you were following the guidelines,
you're supposed to be more or less sure the root or the puller round fit into the guidelines.
Well, like we were talking with the lead team, but it was more like, ha, your route is hard.
Yes, it's hard. For example, that was the conversation. Nothing more. Do you think you
will have a top? No, we don't think so. We have a top. Oh, good. Because we also have a good,
hard round for our four pullers. So it's like not really real talk.
Did you get to like see each other's like boulders and lead route while you're setting?
We were working behind the curtain as a puller team, so we didn't really see them,
but they, they, they said they, they, they, they was, they were hearing me. They said,
yeah, I was quite loud. They were seeing us from the top of the lift, but time to time when they
didn't, didn't, didn't have a job or they had just to leave. So when some time to time when
leaf was, was occupied for different stuff. So time to time the guys from the lead team just came
behind our curtain just to hang up, see, watch something. But it was just to, to be with us for
a second. But no, we were totally working as a two separate teams. I don't know how was the
connection between chiefs because I don't know that they had a lot of meetings. I think they
had a meeting so every day. So that was a big communication, but not on my level as just as a
team end up. Okay. Makes sense. Yeah. I mean, I feel like it turned out pretty well and I
was listening to like another podcast that you had done. I heard you say that you felt the setting
was not perfect, which kind of surprises me because it seems like people actually mostly liked the
setting at Paris. I mean, you know, like online people will always be very loud if they're
upset about the setting or if, yeah, if they were not happy with the results or anything like that.
But I think people were mostly positive, which is very rare. So I guess like congrats on that.
First of all, there was, there was like, of course, a couple of things that people mentioned. I think
one thing was the, like the men's semis being hard. And then the, I feel like the only other thing
that I saw on like Reddit or YouTube comments or whatever was about once again, the setting being
too high for ImLaurie. So what kind of precautions did you take as setters to avoid this? And also
like how tall are you? Well, I'm 158 centimeters with zero span. As far as I know, I is 154. So
four centimeters in between us. As I mentioned before, I don't know how big is her span,
but not minus as far as we know. So it's rather four centimeters less than mine or a bit less if
she has a plus. Well, we were thinking about the sizes all the time, both for men and for the
females. So there are athletes who are not in average. So each time we were wondering,
oh, maybe this guy can reach, should we move it further? Are we sure this guy can't cheat?
Because it's mostly about the guys or with the females. Okay. Are we sure all of the females
can reach? Is it for sure not more full? And we were checking like really a lot of times and we
put a lot of a lot of passion about it. And we spend hours about some movements,
talking, trying to find a good balance to don't make something rich. And we're really,
really focused about it. Are you happy with how it turned out?
Well, I'm not happy because we had an athlete who didn't start the boulder and it's not nice, never.
But instead of being sad, I'm more disappointed because I'm sure this move was not more full.
I'm just sure. So I'm disappointed it happened like that. This move was totally different in
the really beginning, totally different. And we changed it because we thought it's more full.
And it was even worse than we had actually during the Olympic games, the worst in terms of the
morphologies. And I was like, no, it's just more fun. It came like that. And we climb with Tsukasa
and said, no, no, it's just more fun. It's not hard. It's more fun. So we changed that move
for the move which was during the Olympic games. And we decided as a team, this move is a game.
And it's just sad. And I think the same question before that, that's the, yeah,
but that I didn't start. And it's just, you know, we want to have a fur round. We're really
expecting we will give the athletes the fur field of play. We are like, this is our job to make it
fur. It's something which we want. We want to have the best athlete on the podium. We want to show
how good they are, how strong they are, how great the athletes are, and give them the opportunity
to fight, to show the greatest. And it's always sad if the bulldozers, let's say, are too hard,
and then you are, okay, we should do this and this and this to let them play. Or if the bulldozers
are too easy, same, not good scenario. So there is always a lot of disappointment and sadness
in the setting team if they're wrong, it's not as good as we were expecting.
Karly Yeah, so I guess it was more just like the expectation that she should have been able to
do it.
Anastasia Yes, definitely. Definitely. I had more doubts.
Karly Yeah, I feel like people don't really complain about the height difference in setting
for men so much. It is a pretty big difference as well, right? Like setting for maybe like Paul's
height versus like Sasha's height. Anastasia Yes, I don't know why the people don't
complain for that. No. Karly I mean, that is a bigger difference in terms of height, right?
Anastasia Probably. Between Sasha and Paul, probably yes. Then in between I and the biggest
was Shianni, I think. Yeah, maybe it's bigger, different. I don't know. I mean,
men are more dynamic than females, for sure, like in general. So the ability of doing
easy dynamic movement in easy in terms of intensity, it's not so difficult for men. So
in my opinion, the differences in the dynamic in females are bigger than in males. But
Karly Okay.
Anastasia Yeah. At least like I mean, like, at least like, in between the strongest athletes,
because I consider as one of the strong in our line bars, but she's not the most of the dynamics
ones. But yes, she's because she's winning that lead. She's she's one of the best. But I don't
want to say nothing wrong about anybody. I just want to say, to be the good bulldozer, you need
to do a lot of a lot of things. And it's like, like, just to be strong. It's not enough. You need
more. And I didn't go into this earlier. But I guess do you have a preference on like setting
for men's versus women's? I prefer set for females. Because I'm quite smart. So each time
I'm sitting for me, I need to use more creativity and more I don't know, sometimes I'm not sure,
is it okay or not. And I really need somebody to check who is way taller. I can set for men's,
of course. But it's it's I don't feel so convinced, convinced, convenient. When I set for them,
then when then I was when I was sitting for females. But this I'm talking about the World
Cup level, not for I don't know, Polish Cup for Polish Cup does matter for me. But if you're
talking about the strongest males in the world, I don't feel convinced to set the physical boulder
because I'm not able to do any of the move of the physical men problem. So I can set it. But still,
I asked I am not sure if it's possible or not. Is the good level? Is it too hard, too easy? So
afterwards, we need to check it as a team. In general, with your experience at the Olympics,
did you stay in the Olympic Village? No, at all. No, we were living close to the venue.
And the Olympic Village was around 40 minutes far away from that. Oh, that's pretty far, actually.
I don't know if we had access we I didn't check it. I don't know. But we had an access to different
sports. So we were watching, for example, gymnastics final. That was awesome. We had an access to
opening and closing ceremony. Yeah, and the different sports when we had a rest days, we could
just take our passes and go to Paris and watch different sports. And so between Tokyo and Paris,
I think there was only one route setter who has done both of them. Do you have any interest in
doing? Oh, really? Yeah, sorry. That was two. Two, three. Sorry, three. So that was Jan Zbranek and
Adam Kustelnik from the lead team. And I think Akita was also setting in Tokyo in the lead team,
but as a national setter. And for the boulder team, that was Garrett Breger, who was setting in the
Olympic team in Tokyo. Okay, well, I guess scratch that question. But do you have any interest in
doing more Olympic setting in the future? If you ask me now, I would say yes, I would like to go
to Los Angeles, but I don't know what will happen in the next four years. It's a really long time.
So yeah, let's see. I'm assuming you would hope that they would separate out boulder and lead.
Not really. I mean, maybe the best scenario would be to have the combine plus lead plus...
Yeah, that would be fun. I mean, I like the combine format. I like the emotions. I like the dynamic
in between two. Yeah, I'm not a fan of the game lines, but it's something about we can talk,
we can change, we can make adjustments. So like the guidelines, it's the thing. Just competition,
like these two disciplines together are really cool to watch. And I really like it. And the new
generations of climbers, they used to combine. So the kids who were, I don't know, 12 when we
were in Tokyo, now they are 15. So in Los Angeles, they will be 19. So probably maybe we will
have Olympic medalists who are still in youth now. We don't know. So those who have a big
chance to compete in Los Angeles, they will be already combined athletes who really grow up like
this, not like Adam O'Krah who was lead specialist since always. And he needs to adjust himself for
this format. A lot of different, different athletes.
Yeah, I also think combined would be fun. I agree. I think it would be nice to have like a
boulder lead and a combined medal. I think that would be a lot of fun to see.
Maybe, maybe. It's just for me who watch, it's interesting to see how they struggle, how they
fight. It's nice. And then it's also like lead change, the dynamic of the routes change,
because of the boulders. And it's also great. Before we didn't have a 360 on the lead wall,
and now it's nothing strange. And it's great. The sport is growing, it's evolving. And it's
necessary in sports like that, like our sport, which is great new sport.
But you don't want speed to be combined back in.
Well, no, for sure, no. Otherwise, we won't have a medal in front of us. We don't want
speed to be combined back in. So, yeah, I guess that's true.
Speed is just something different. It makes no sense to combine us with the boulder lead.
I think everybody knows it.
Yeah, it's just way too different. Okay, I think that covers everything I wanted to go into with
the Olympics. So now moving a bit more into, I guess, like your personal life. You are also
like a mother, I think you have two kids. Do your kids also climb?
Yes, they do. Both of them. Yes.
They enjoy it? Or are you forcing them into it?
No, no, no, no. I mean, they can choose whatever they want in their life. I will support them if
they are decisions. So far, my daughter, she's dreamed to be the Yania. And this is like something
that she would like to achieve. I'm pretty sure it's not possible. But she loves climbing. She
has a pleasure to train. She likes to compete. So I'm just happy that she enjoys it. And it's great.
And my son is seven. So he's still trying to find himself in the sport. So he likes climbing,
but he's also like soccer. And he's just doing a bit of this, a bit of that. And he's climbing
just for fun. So do they prefer competition climbing or outdoors?
My son, he's in love in Fontainebleau slabs. He's just crazy good in this. I hate when he's
climbing in Fontainebleau because all the time I think he will die. So he prefers that. And
my daughter prefers indoor. Makes sense. And I think I've seen you do competitions after
becoming a mother. How long did it take you to recover just from giving birth and
feeling like you're back to your normal climbing shape?
With my daughter, I did it definitely too fast. But in both pregnancies, I was climbing until my
ninth month of pregnancy. But I mean, it was climbing just for myself. I was moving on the
wall, I would call it. I was climbing, I don't know, six A's because I like to climb six A's
on the top road. But after pregnancy, it took me one month to come back to the wall. After my
pregnancy, I was a bit afraid. I wasn't sure if I can already or not. With my son, it was exactly
six days. So I was already outside climbing. That was quite fast. But it was spring, I really
want to go outside, I really want to climb a bit. So yeah, so we went.
You said that you went back to climbing six days after giving birth?
Yeah. Yeah, but after my second kid, yeah, there was six days.
I mean, still, that's kind of crazy, right? Yeah, I was feeling good. So why not? It's
something that I do since I was a kid. It's nothing weird. My doctor told me that you better
don't start to run, like jogging and out because you never did it before. So it's stupid. But
the climbing is something for you. Your body knows best. So if you feel okay,
and it's not exhausting. It was not a training session. It was vertical wall on the top wall.
I was just moving up a bit on the super easy route. So nothing crazy.
Wow. Okay. And you didn't, I guess you didn't have like issues when you were climbing,
when you were like nine months pregnant either?
No, it was same like same level of climbing. So like six days or something like super easy
stuff with the cute holes. Yeah. I mean, I really like climbing. It's something that I really
appreciate in my life. And I never consider pregnancy as a disability. And I really wanted
to continue my climbing even if I'm pregnant. And because to be pregnant is normal. And
climbing is also normal. So like why, why you can't do it? I mean, I know there is a lot of
cases, a lot of like every person is different. Every pregnancy is different. And like, but in my,
I'm talking about myself, I was feeling good. I was feeling healthy and everything was okay.
Well, very lucky, I guess. Yeah, it's always, I've just always been kind of like scared of it. I mean,
like as a kid, I used to watch a lot of videos where people talk about their pregnancy. So I've
heard a lot of like horror stories as well. And I mean, some people, like some people's stories,
it sounds like even just standing up and walking around is like the hardest thing in the world. So
yeah, it's really personal, I guess. I have a lot of accidents in my life, like recently during
Olympics. But yeah, I turned to the hospital in the Budapest, I turned to the hospital. So like, I know,
like, I know the shit can happen in life, but it doesn't mean it will happen when you're pregnant.
Or I don't know, I mean, you can go, you can walk on the street and you can be hit by a bus. It's,
some things are happening in your life randomly, and you can't have control on it. But when I am
climbing top roads, it hurts, on the subways and stuff, I have the full control. And that's it.
Yeah, I mean, it's good to know that you don't have to give it up and you can at least still do
at least still do top rope safely. So that's good to know for anyone who's concerned out there like
me. I think everybody has to talk with their doctors to be sure their bodies is healthy,
and their kid is healthy. And with the, yeah, it's really personal decision. And I don't judge
anybody. And I don't say it's normal to climb. I say it was normal for myself. And this is two
different things. Yeah. And also you mentioned stuff that happened in like Budapest and Paris
in terms of your health. Do you want to get into that a little bit? Okay. But in Budapest,
I was trying the slab, I fell from the slab and I don't know how it happened, but I felt really far
away from the wall, like really on the end of the mud, where was the volume and I hit the edge of
the volume which hit my eyebrow and I cut my eyebrow and I had two stitches. Oh, wow. Okay.
And it ended up quite a bit. And in Paris, and just one day before the setting, I ate a piece of
meat which spacked in my throat and they need to take it out during the general anesthesia.
Also not Janine. Black keys. Not climbing related at all.
Not really. Did you feel like that affected your, I don't know, health setting the rest of the
competition? Yeah, definitely. Like general anesthesia during the first day of setting,
like I skipped the first day because I was in the hospital, but I was barely able to walk on the
first floor in the hotel. Oh, wow. I wasn't able to go out from the metro one day from the starts
because I was, whew, wow, I can't, like it's too much for my body. This chemistry or whatever they
put in me, it was too much. So almost two weeks of setting in Paris, I was feeling really like weak
and really out of breath and I couldn't try a few times in a row because I just couldn't. Like my
body said no, I can't move. So it really affected me and I was like, sorry guys, I'm really sorry.
I really want to push hard, but I can't. Like my body can't. And it like, I came back to myself
a bit in the end. Like during the comps days, I was more or less feeling better, but with myself,
the beginning was really tough. Wow. Yeah. I'm surprised you managed to come back after that
and set. That's crazy. Geez, I just, I have like no idea how you managed to handle all of that.
So, I mean, even outside of the hospital stuff and all of that, how do you balance like training
and traveling and family and motherhood and all of that? I am really an energetic person.
I don't like to sit and do nothing. At home it's different. I have a lot of time at home
because during the day my kids are at school. So I have the time for myself, for my trainings,
for managing the house, to do all the house because I'm single man. So I need to do everything alone.
And I can do this when they are at school. And afterwards we have time for ourselves.
I didn't know that you were a single mom, so that makes it even harder.
Oh my God. I've never said it's easy. It's challenging. It's hard. It's not really nice,
but it's life and I love my kids. So yeah, I try to do everything that's best for them.
Yeah. So do they like travel with you as well when you're off at WorldCups?
I don't like to take them with me to the work because I really like to be really focused on my
job. I love my kids and I want to be focused on my kids. So I don't like to put these things,
two things together. So it's not common I take them with me time to time.
Yeah. So when I'm going to the work, they stay at home with their father.
Okay. Gotcha. That makes sense. Geez. That's a lot. I'm just like so shocked that you can do
all of that. It just seems like a lot at once. I just, I can't even imagine. So yeah, outside of
your training and taking care of kids and everything like that, what do you do outside of climbing?
As you said, as I said in the beginning, I'm surfing a bit, a bit, a bit if I can, if I have
a time. I'm reading books, but I don't know. I think that's it. I mean, all days I spend
in normal life to try to manage my life, my kids lives. And that's what I do all the time.
And when I'm going to work, I'm focused on work. I finally have a bit time just for myself.
Then like don't need to, I don't need to think about the kids. So it's work, but afterwards
in the evening, it's, it's, it's just time for me. So kind of holidays in different way.
Yeah. So at home, there is not really time to do something crazy. I meet my friends.
Yeah, that makes sense. I mean, you've, you've clearly got a lot of stuff going on already.
We go to ski in the winter, of course, or snowboard, or hiking in the weekends,
like normal, normal life like the people have. Yeah. So you're no longer like doing snowboarding
competitions, but I guess you still go quite frequently. No, no, no. When it's like quick,
I think I've never stand on the, I mean, no, never, but I think I've, I've didn't stand on
the board like seven years, kind of. Oh, wow. Okay. Like I really was down. That's surprising.
I mean, well, like, why didn't you want to snowboard at all after you quit? Cause I can't
imagine you like just giving up climbing straight up for seven years, right? Because I like to
snowboard on the, I'm snowboarding on the hard board. So like the pro, that was my discipline.
And the best conditions is just on the really early morning. And I hate to wake up on the really
early morning and I hate winter and I hate when I'm freezing. So like these three things put me
away. If you will tell me like, okay, in three seconds, you can be on the perfect slope with the
perfect snow, like a slope on the perfect snow on the board. And it will be so much more fun.
Like I can snowboard and it will be sunny. I don't know, minus three degree. Like, okay,
I'm into it, but the whole process to get there, like I'm not enough motivated to do it.
Yeah. I can agree with that. Do you have any interest in like competing again in the future?
Maybe not at like a, okay. Not at all.
That was really hard decision for me to quit, especially when I was qualified. So it was,
since few years, I was like, okay, I will quit. No, I won't stay. I will quit. I will stay. It
was a big battle in myself. And once I made a decision, I stayed with my decision. And
that's more or less how I act in my life. You know, you will decide something. It's like that.
And I, I'm not the person who's changing the mind.
Yeah. Well, I actually, I was talking about like competing and climbing, not at like a
super high level, but just like local competitions or something like that.
It's not bad. No, in climbing, yes, I do tend to them. I compete in Poland. If there are
cool fun competition in my hometown and I'm not setting up, why not?
Yes. I always have a fun to compete. Kind of inspirational to hear about how
much you managed to do at once with balancing your family life and competing and traveling
and all of that. So I think that was, that was very helpful for me to learn because I just,
I don't know anyone who does it. So that's good to know. Okay. So let's move on to a few of the
last questions we have from like discord and people in the community. This one is referencing
a video that you're in with the IFSC where you are introducing the 360 ghost holds.
Yes. I do. Yes.
Two, I think that was Hachi Hachi, Hachi Hachi, 2023. Yeah. One year ago.
Yeah. And that was a big competition. Lots of complaints about that one. So this question is
asking, I remember you were in that video introducing the ghost holds and it got completely flooded
with negative comments. How do you manage that dealing with negative comments? How did you
experience it? And in general, how do you deal with the barrage of bad setting comments when
things don't go entirely to plan? I think I've never read all of the comments under that video,
but those who I was reading were mostly about the hold and not about myself. So I didn't really care
too much. I didn't agree with most of them and that's it. Like if I have a chance to talk with
somebody, I can explain something. I mean, the history behind this video is quite funny because
it was just a question, Olga, do you like this hold? Maybe you can say something about this hold.
And I was like, yeah, actually I really like this hold. Of course I can say good things about that
hold because it's a good hold. And it was a really, really spontaneous conversation in between me and
Matt. And we were repeated video because the light was bad or the voice was bad and he said, I'm
mumbling or et cetera, et cetera. So like it was really random talk about the hold during the setting.
And I didn't pay attention too much. Like I didn't understand why the people were so upset about this.
Like afterwards I did, after the Janik Flora comment, I had a conversation with Janik Flora
about this. And now I understand that I didn't really care. Like the people, sometimes I upset
about something, but they don't have a full knowledge about the subject. So why should
I be sad about these comments? Well, I guess like now we've seen the hold used quite a lot.
Do you feel like people have changed their thoughts on it? Like people like it now?
The biggest issue with the hold and the biggest problem which the people had, that was you can't
see where you can grab the hold. That was the most comments, at least those which I read because I
didn't read all, but that was the thing which made the people angry or whatever. And the
the reality is it's not like that. So once you see the hold and you're clamped, you actually,
you really know where you have to grab it. And I guess the people need the time to understand
that what they assumed the time was incorrect. And actually what like all the fears which they had
are not here. Like it's not like that. It's normal hold with the cool idea, with the nice
like visuality and it works like all of the holds. Like when you're a pro athlete you already know
where to grab it. So it's not like, it's a new thing. In the beginning it's a bit weird, but
but you can use to it easily. And these holds now are on the gyms and the people have no problem with
those holds. I think the people are scary in the beginning about new things time to time and
that was the kind of hate. Like just scary. So that was mainly just on the the hold itself.
What about when you see comments about when it is about the setting or maybe like a little bit
about the setting or maybe like a boulder that you specifically worked on? Is there like a time where
it was your boulder and people just really shat on it online? I don't really even know where I can
read those comments. If I said the comp I don't watch the YouTube competition. I can't, yeah,
because I know the competition. I'm not coming back to those videos. I think once I tried to find
any comments and I couldn't. And I don't know if I'm looking for badly or what, but
it's not easy for me to find these all negative comments. It's more like what I hear behind me or
in between friends, but not like randomly, not really. Maybe that's the way to do it.
Don't read the negative comments. Maybe somebody will comment under my post. Then of course I will
see it, but I don't know. It never hit me. Like it was time to time to see something negative, but
yeah. Well, that's good. Next question. Do you want the boulder two zone format to stay or go?
Definitely go. I'm not a fan of two zones format. I recently explained it, so I will repeat myself
quickly. I believe that simple boulder is the best boulder and two zones just extending our
problems. And we can't have really short, really basic, really boulder boulder because of the two
zones format. And we can't really play on the end of the boulder, which supposed to be the hardest
part because once the athlete will reach the end part of the boulder, there is not so many time of
the clock on the clock. So in reality, if the five and 10 points are for something, the athlete has
one or two attempts on the top and it's most of the time not enough to play with something cool.
If we have just one zone, we can play on the beginning and there is still at least half of
the time for the second part. And I think it's more visuality enjoyable to watch if there is one zone
instead of two.
All right. So you mean like setting like maybe not a brand new move, but something that would be
hard for them to figure out? For sure. We can play more with that times if we have just one zone,
because we can see how the athlete is learning during the process and we can push more, we can
play more, we can give them bigger challenge on the one zone format. And most of the time where
we were setting the word caps, we were trying to avoid to have two crooks on the world ruler,
because most of the time is too much and there is not enough time for the top part. And with the
two zones, we always need to have these two crooks. So now after the OQS, we realized like the five
points needs to be really easy and needs to be accessible for everybody. And it's like almost for
nothing. So why we are first to use it if it's actually for nothing.
Yeah, that makes sense. Okay. Next question. How do you continue to improve your well-setting
skills?
Setting as much as possible and with as many different people as possible, with as many
different countries as possible. So just to don't stay in one place. For myself, it's the best is to
experiment to switching the environments, switching the teams, switching the
team members to play with different parts of the globe. And then you can learn faster and more
efficient because you're not in the routine of the time you are experimenting with the different
people. And I think that for me, the people are the most important factor in a real world.
I think it's us who are the team and who create something in the world.
Do you feel like there's a country that you like their setting the most?
For me, it's France because they have an exceptional vision of the road setting of the
movement in general. But it's just me, in my opinion.
What's different about it? Is it just slabs or everything in general?
Because I hear a lot about their slabs, but I don't know about the others.
But everything, I guess, everywhere when I was, there are great road setters and really good
gems. But in French, almost everywhere is really good. So the level almost everywhere is high.
And the expectations are high. So it's good because you are forced to do the good job.
And if the job is not good, you really feel disappointment. And I think it's something
really positive thing. I mean, at least what I like. And when you are going on the random
Parisian gym, you will find really good pullers over there. And it's not like this in different
countries, not in all of gyms. Okay, I'll have to go back to Paris and
try out all the gyms. Okay. And last question that we got, I think it might have been a little
bit answered before, but in case you have a different answer for this, what are some
unique challenges that you face as a mother and professional setter? I've heard women athletes
who have to feed their infants during half time of a game. Just curious about what it was like
for you during pregnancy or postpartum. During pregnancy, it didn't work as a road setter.
So afterwards, the biggest challenge for me was missing my kids. So I was missing so much.
So the biggest problem for me, it was to spend too many days out of the house without them.
But with the time, when they grow up, it's easier and easier and easier. They don't need
me so much. So it's just turned with the time. Now, I feel they are safe when I'm not at home.
I feel they are happy that I'm not with them. So it's not really, I have a feeling it's harder
for me than for them. So somehow it makes me feel comfortable that I'm not at home with my kids,
because I'm sure they are okay without me. Time to time, I take them for the commercial setting,
because it's just eight hours and they play around, they climb, they read books,
watch the movie or something. But they grow up on the climbing gyms. They were a few months
when I was climbing. I don't know, my kid was three months old. I was breastfeeding,
I was climbing, I was breastfeeding climbing. So they grew up in the climbing gyms. This is
normal environment for them. They like it, they enjoy it. And it's not a problem for them to
join me for my training session or spend time with me. So I think now I'm in the time in my life when
my kids are growing up to let them do whatever they want. They just don't need me so much.
Yeah. I mean, I guess there's a big difference between ages zero to three. And then after that,
it gets a lot easier. Yeah. It's like the huge difference in between once you turn out two years
old, it's like, like new kid, wow, I don't need to do this and this and this. And then it's again,
when it turned up four and five and seven and 10, it's like the new big problems appearing,
but different problems are gone. So it's switching all the time.
Okay. Good to know. Very, it's always an exciting journey, I guess.
Yeah. It's to be a mom or a dad. It's a hard job. It's definitely a hard job. I think everyone
knows that. Who are parents? Yeah. Okay, cool. Well, I think that is all the questions I had.
Thanks for joining me today. Anything, any like last thoughts that you have?
No, I think I'm really happy I'm here. Thank you very much for the invitation and for the questions.
Yeah. Do you want to let people know where they can find you if they have any other questions?
Yes, of course. I have an Instagram profile. My name is surname, so Olga Niemiec. And if
somebody has any questions, please write me. I will try to answer like, don't feel stressed or something.
All right. Sounds good. Thank you again. And it was amazing to talk.
Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you so much for making it to the end of the podcast.
Don't forget to like and subscribe if you enjoyed. Otherwise, you are a super fake climber. If you're
listening on a podcasting platform, I'd appreciate if you rate it five stars and you can continue the
discussion on the free competition climbing discord linked in the description. Thanks again for listening.