David climbing in the semi-final of the Boulder World Cup in Munich 2017 – (c) Frank Brandenburger

In this article (in German, published in Süddeutsche Zeitung) David argues for a reform of the controversial doping control system ADAMS. When translating the text into English here, David shortened it in some parts and added more detailed information in some other places.

The controls (urine and blood tests) in ADAMS can be carried out unannounced daily between 6 a.m. and 11 p.m. There ist not enough consideration given to personal circumstances, although the National Anti-Doping Agency in Germany (NADA) must be informed months in advance of David’s daily availability. David has also been announced that in future checks could be carried out around the clock, regardless of his need for rest and night sleep as a competitive athlete and student. And NADA is not prepared in principle to do without doping controls, e.g. during university exams or in the immediate nightly run-up to them.

The „Anti-Doping Administration and Management System“ (ADAMS) is the NADA control program with which the athletes are located. David is a member of the Registered Testing Pool (RTP), the group with the highest level of performance and is therefore checked relatively frequently. Each quarter of the year, David has to enter his whereabouts and activities for each day in advance in ADAMS. This is almost impossible. In addition, there are from time to time technical access problems to the app and it has already happened that he has been misinformed by those responsible about alleged telephone availability for spontaneous changes when a SMS didn’t work. David didn’t get any training or time to get used to the system. If one is not found three times within one year at the indicated place, a ban of two years threatens. The risk is borne by the athlete. It has also happened before that David was ordered back from rock climbing in Ticino at his own expense to German-speaking Switzerland for a doping test and had to leave everything behind together with his climbing partner. Or, that he was late for university duties because the controller was unable to draw blood from his good veins as a climber.

And David is not the only one who doubts the ADAMS system. French sports federations and dozens of top athletes filed unsuccessful complaints against ADAMS before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg due to inadequacies in its handling and interference with personal rights. A GPS-supported competitor product for ADAMS would also have existed, but the umbrella organization WADA (World Anti Doping Agency) rejected it for data protection reasons. However, the ADAMS system itself is viewed very critically by some data protectors.

In the German Alpine Association (DAV), doping controls have been outsourced to NADA since 2014 for reasons of independence. Since then, regular checks have been carried out, which have practically doubled since the announcement that climbing will be Olympic in Tokyo in 2020. It is not possible for the athletes to influence how NADA handles the samples. A TV research in Germany in January showed that the sample bottles can be manipulated. Reporters had succeeded in opening and closing sealed glass bottles by freezing them beforehand. Philipp Abels, DAV competition climbing coordinator, says that every sample becomes vulnerable like this. The athlete participates in ADAMS, gives up a large part of his personality sphere and the NADA doesn’t even get it managed to make the rehearsals fair. Dr. Mortsiefer, a lawyer and NADA board member, believes that the biggest challenge in terms of control material safety now is to find partners who invest in the development of new, safer systems. He says he knows that ADAMS is very much in demand from athletes.

The fight against doping is a balancing act between ensuring clean sport and respecting the personal rights of athletes. The World Anti-Doping Code is due to be adopted at the end of 2019. Until then, ADAMS will also be revised. Perhaps in such a way that David’s personal rights then will be better taken into account…

David right before setting off for the famous dyno in „La Rambla“ (c) Iuliia Leonova

The two weeks trip to Siurana turned out to be a very successful one. After a couple of days of working on „La Rambla“ David could finally tick his first 9a+ ever. And right before leaving he finished the trip with a quick ascent of „La Reina Mora“, just next to La Rambla.

The trip to Catalonia was originally planned together with Ruben over New Year. But just before David got a foot injury which made it impossible for him to go. So he had to shift his climbing in Catalonia to February.

The main objective of the trip was to send La Rambla. In January David started to train for the upcoming bouldering season. Together with his coach Urs Stöcker he put up a new training plan in Zurich. Since the trip to Catalonia was actually planned earlier he didn’t train his endurance specifically. Instead he’d done a lot of maximum and explosive strength exercises in the gyms around Zurich and spent 3 days bouldering in Fontainebleau where he did some milestones of the history in bouldering, such as „Karma“ (Fb 8A), „La Merveille“ (Fb 8A+) and „Partage“ (Fb 8A+). All of them are very technical and tricky. True Fontainebleau style which everyone knows who has been to this magical bouldering area once.

Well, it was the first time that David has been to Catalonia in February. It is calmer than over New Year (not so many climbers). He stayed in a nice apartment of „La Vileta“ which is run by very friendly Catalonian locals, close to the main square of Cornudella de Montsant, the village underneath Siurana. Cornudella is pretty rural, mainly inhabited by farmers’ families who live from the surrounding olive, nut and wine fields. When you go climbing or walk around in the countryside you notice its beautiful landscape and nature. In the karst there are numerous caves. Dry and rocky areas dominate with a low vegetation of herbs, shrubs and pines. There are many rare species of wild animals. Because of their trustfulness robins often accompany you when climbing.

Dad feeding a robin who came to take a look if we don’t make any troubles at the crag

Because of its 9a+ difficulty La Rambla has been a new challenge for David. It is a long (around 45 meters), overhanging and technical route. It has got a famous name in the climbing scene. First ascended by Alex Huber to a lower anchor and extended by Ramón Julián Puigblanque to the actual top. It first kicks off with a technical crack followed by more powerful and pumpy moves with a unique jump in the middle to a rest before the hardest and most bouldery part at the end.

Some years ago David did already „El Rastro“ and „Broadway“, two lines which share at least half of the route with La Rambla, so that he already knew the lower part. On the first day he once checked out the moves, brushed and tick-marked the holds and gave it a good try where he already fell in the last and hardest part at the top. There are 4 compression moves on round side holds and crimps which easily spit you off when too pumped after around 35 meters of climbing approximately 8c to this point.

David shaking out his arms before he attacks the redpoint crux of „La Rambla“ (c) Iuliia Leonova

After this good first day of projecting David struggled some days with bad skin (especially the pockets literally ate the side skin of his fingers). Not the best conditions to send hard stuff. During these days he always fell on a certain and probably the hardest move in the route at the top from an open side hold into a small undercling which you have to catch close to your chest after you’ve reached out longly. In the past years such failures (falling on the same move without getting any higher) sometimes awakened negative thoughts and frustration in David. But meanwhile he can manage his mind set well. This time he didn’t really care about these failures and took it easy.

To be honest, every time you fall and reflect what mistake you’ve done you somehow have a progress in your project. It does not always have to be that you’ve got some moves higher but that you have adapted your beta or optimized your clipping positions and rest points for example. It is actually a failure itself to think that there is no progression at all although you keep on falling on the same move.

„It will happen sooner or later“ was David’s devise and he kept on trying with confidence and mental coolness. In the end it took him some 6 days of work to finally stuck the last hard move and top out his first 9a+ ever.

Keep smiling although projecting might be frustrating sometimes – that works wonders (c) Iuliia Leonova

So, La Rambla represents a new dimension in his climbing and now it feels like that there are more years of personal progress in climbing still to come. There must be a reason why the years between 20 and 30 are called „The Golden Twenties“ in climbing The main task will probably be to keep the mental coolness alive and to work on the maximum strength, mainly in bouldering and in the gym.

Right before David had to leave Siurana to head back home to Switzerland he wanted to use his fitness to dedicate to „La Reina Mora“ which has the same crack start and the same top-out with La Rambla but a more crimpy and sustained middle section. It is the real straight-up on this part of the wall. Falling two times on the last hard move in the end was a bit annoying but he had chosen a not optimal beta and when he optimized this it went down first go of the day and the finish of the trip couldn’t have been sweeter. La Reina Mora might be one of the most beautiful climbs in whole Catalonia.

David working himself up the crack of „La Reina Mora“ (c) Jon Cardwell

David is happy to return back to Switzerland again to prepare for the upcoming bouldering competitions and rock climbings in Switzerland. University lectures start as well again and it is great to come back home to reload batteries for the next challenges which climbing always has to offer in a brilliant way.

Thanks to Iuliia Leonova and Jon Caldwell for their nice pictures and to our sponsors Scarpa, Haglöfs, Friction Labs, Escaladrome Hannover and the DAV section Rhineland-Cologne for the amazing support lately. As the Spanish climbers say: A Muerte!!!

David learning in the so called „Lichthof“ in the main building of the university of Zurich (c) Ruben Firnenburg

We’ve contributed our first article to the thecircuitclimbing.com below which is run by Eddie Fowke. He is a well-known and very friendly photographer and writer in the climbing scene and travels to almost every IFSC World Cup around the world. He’s a friend to every athlete in the circuit of rock and competition climbing. We are happy to work with him more often from now on!

If you like the article, spread the word so that everyone can benefit from our thoughts about the dual task of combining performance climbing and education in life. There are more articles about more topics to come!

Anyone who wants to study psychology at the University of Zurich (UZH), has to undergo a packed program with a year-round average of 40 hours per week or sometimes even 60-70 hours during the lecture period – and this within the confines of a public university where there is neither integration nor support of the sports system or athlete’s commitments. This sets a pretty tough schedule for athletes like David where competitive sport training often depends on free space and individual design of the study course, and where training starts to amount to a full time job. “In fact the first year at the UZH in psychology is a screening year. Virtually, they want to clear out every second student. That’s what here is called the assessment year“, David explains.

To better meet this selection procedure in the dual task of competitive sports and university studies, David already has started as a guest student this spring term, one semester before the official onset of his studies, and has already been working for the foreseeable examination hurdles. “After the assessment year a part-time study with a stretched curriculum will probably be the solution for my time problems,” he says. “Already now, during the guest semester, I have to construct my training around the curriculum at the university. There is no other way”, David notes. He trains seven or eight times a week, each about 3 hours, and he also spends weekend time on national team trainings, at competitions or on the rock. This comes along with additional antagonist training and stretching on two active rest days a week.

David in the final of the final Boulder World Cup in Munich this year (c) Eddie Fowke

Lectures are uploaded digitally

It also happens during the lecture period that David has to go abroad for international competitions. However, for the assessment year he intends to stay within the time frame of his university. “At the UZH I have the advantage that the lectures are uploaded in the intranet and it quickly becomes clear what I need to rework,” David says. Lectures aside, however, there are also seminars and other sessions, the material for which isn’t as easy to access.
Additionally David doesn’t always get support from the staff. “There are sometimes acceptance problems on the faculty side. As an athlete, I don’t always get the necessary understanding from teachers for this double load I have”. David’s strategy for dealing with this is to network as widely as possible with other students, to exchange lecture transcripts and material, to jointly cope better with the large amount of learning materials, documentation and tasks set.
“Since I prefer Zurich as my training site for quality reasons, I have to arrange myself with the situation at the UZH. I cannot, without making significant concessions to my training, switch to another or even to a private university, where I perhaps would be treated more like a real customer”, David explains. He sees it, at least partially, as a challenge to raise awareness in the faculty and to contribute to a better understanding for the circumstances of elite athletes.

Besides lectures, seminars and further exercises autonomous repetition and learning takes the most time in the studies (c) Ruben Firnenburg

“Solid grades will also do”

“Sure, it’s way of stress to accommodate university and competitive sports. But I have targeted my studies as well as to increase my climbing achievements. And so I have to grit my teeth sometimes and just to go through”, David states. According to him, clearly, he will not be earning top grades with his brutal schedule, but, in the end, solid grades will also do. It was already the same during my time at high school, when I at least was able to skip the 10th grade for an exchange year at Innsbruck in Austria and finally to achieve my university entrance diploma, too”, he reports.

Admission to study courses like psychology is restricted in Switzerland and in Germany. In David’s case as a German citizen, an admission first to study this subject at a German university is needed for being admitted at the UZH. “I benefit from an agreement that has been negotiated between the University Sports Federation and some universities in Germany”, David explains. This agreement allows some compensation for top athletes in the internal university selection procedure of students. Thus, an admission at the UZH became possible.

A dual career in the United States might be easier

In 2014, a dispute with the students’ sport support system in Germany appeared in book form. Ben Bendrich, a former German national basketball player, published his doctoral thesis “Students’ elite sports between resignation, myth and breakup – a study on dual careers in Germany and the United States”. Bendrich concluded that the promotion of sports works better at the universities in the United States. He opined that the contracts between the University Sports Federation and the universities in Germany were laudable, but not specific enough and often not widely known or understood by the lecturers at the universities. And for David, of course, they are not applicable in Switzerland. “But in my case, these agreements at least have helped for my admission to study psychology. Unfortunately, as a foreigner not being part of the national coordination between the Swiss Olympic support system and the UZH, I am now supposed to find my own way of being included at least in a minimal way. Bendrich’s book makes me curious to go for an exchange year to a US university perhaps one day”, David comments.

David finished 4th in the Boulder World Cup in Munich this year (c) Eddie Fowke

Lack of support for competitive climbing

David and his family started climbing in Hannover in northern Germany, where he grew up, but since 2016, David and his younger brother Ruben, live in Zurich.

“Training possibilities here simply are the best for us. Our coach, Dr. Urs Stöcker, is also the Swiss national coach and highly qualified. We get along very well together. The results are self-explanatory. After a rock oriented past year our performances in the World Cup this year are getting better again”, says the 21 years old.

Recently David achieved semifinal and final placements in the Briancon Lead World Cup and the Munich Boulder World Cup, and is on track to become all-rounder who is strong in both bouldering and lead climbing and who can consistently perform at a top level at least one discipline in nearby future. “During my youth and junior time I was already several times German champion and also European champion and third in the World Championships. Even within the seniors I have already achieved several podiums in the German Lead and Boulder Championships, including a title”, David says. But despite these successes and some encouraging support from sponsors, David cannot live solely from climbing: his basic livelihood has to be supported by his family. “Without this, the whole thing wouldn’t work”, David asserts.

Traditionally there is only a weak support system for sport climbing in Germany. Where, for instance, elite athletes in other Olympic sports receive on average 626 Euros net per month by the German Sports Fund, climbers miss out. “We have to wait and see how effective a planned strengthening of competitive sports in the German Alpine Association will be, especially in view of Olympic’s 2020 at Tokyo”, David mentions. “Due to past experiences you not necessarily have to be optimistic. It is more way of a stolid affair. And if here essential things do not turn for the better, it will continue to be largely left to chance or heroic achievement of individual athletes and their families in Germany to perform at the highest international level”, David criticizes.

David in the lead semi-final route of the World Championships in Paris this year. He placed 3rd in the overall category (c) Eddie Fowke

Perspectives for the Olympics in 2020

Since David would not be able to live from climbing, a unilateral decision in favour of his sport would turn out to be at high risk. “The sport hero of today may be failing socially tomorrow”, he says. David does not want to end up as a vocational drop out some day because of having only concentrated on his sport before. “I have to ask myself whether it will be worthwhile to sacrifice my studies for top-level sports. In my situation it seems to be reasonable, to invest not only in my athletic career but also in my university education. I therefore have to tackle the problem of coping with the double burden”, David explains.

The usual way of his older climbing colleagues in Germany is to abandon their sport career the sooner or later and to give priority to their vocational training. “This reasonable decision indeed affects our sport adversely, because like this a sustainable international competitiveness is not to be expected. Realistically I see my chances to participate in the Olympic Games in 2020 more as an outsider. But if I can maintain my joy of climbing and continue also to rely on my capabilities, it doesn’t seem impossible to me to have a chance of taking part at Tokyo”, David ends.

David in the 2nd qualification route in Frankenthal

The last stage of the German Lead Championships took place at Neu-Ulm (Bavaria) last Sunday. As last year, this year’s championships consisted of 3 competitions, in Germany known as German Lead Cups. The first cup was hosted at the brand new DAV climbing gym at Munich Freiman and the second at a rather old but gold climbing gym at Frankenthal in Pfalz close to Mannheim. For us two it was a nice series with various challenges because the Cups had different route settings.

We’ve never been to the new gym at Freiman yet so we didn’t have any idea how the wall with its structures and angles would be like. In addition, it was outdoors but luckily it wasn’t that autumnal like now. Usually artificial holds get more slippery when cold. The qualification routes were sustained and demanding. Ruben easily qualified for finals and David nearly missed it with an 8th place. The final was well set but could have been a bit harder. Jan Hojer and David fell at the last move to the top but Jan won due to better results in the qualifications. Ruben finished 1st in the juniors ranking and 5th in the men’s category. He definitely could have done better but he hesitated while clipping and lost power and flow.

Frankenthal is a steep and powerful wall and the 2nd cup was set in a very dynamic style with at least one jump in almost every route. The qualifications went well and we both qualified for finals as 3rd and 4th. Unfortunately, the final route was very unsustained. It was maybe an 7c+ climb until a huge jump to the left where almost every finalist fell except Jan who fell two moves later. It is always a pity when one move spits off more or less every athlete so that the pre-round counts for a final result. However, we were close on the jump (David made a foot mistake and Ruben got stuck with his hand in the rope while jumping) and definitely able to stick it so it’s hard to complain. Ruben finished 1st in the juniors again and 3rd in the men’s event which was one of his best results so far. David missed the podium as 4th place which made him a bit frustrated.

Observing the final route in Frankenthal together

Last weekend turned out to be kind of a speed final in a lead final route. The qualification round saw a bunch of double tops with a tricky slab. Regrettably, Ruben fell too early in the first qualification route and got a time-out in the slab. He couldn’t make finals with a 12th place but nevertheless he won the juniors game and therewith became German juniors lead champion winning 3 out of 3 events. And that was also enough to save a 5th place in the seniors championship overall. Pretty good season for him this year!

Sebastian Halenke was the first to top the final route. And since Jan Hojer, Chris Hanke and David also topped it, it was all about time to secure the victory of the day. David, being the last one to come out of the Isolation zone, actually had the most pressure but eventually it was a tactical advantage because he knew from backstage that the route must be doable and that he had to climb fast. In the end he clipped the anchor by 15 seconds slower than Jan who was literally running up the wall without taking a single rest. A 2nd place in the day ranking assured David of the vice title in the championship behind Jan which was tactically the priority because Jan more or less secured the title already by qualifying for the final. Props to him for a strong performance on all three events and especially to our team mate Lena Herrmann who became German lead champion after a break of competition climbing and some 8c’s on the rocks lately!

Ruben resting at volume in the final route in Frankenthal

We had a lot of fun this year competing at the nationals but from our point of view there are still some things which can be suggested to make lead competition climbing in Germany more attractive. Not only for the athletes but also for the audience. This is why we want to mention some points how to improve the quality of the events based on what we’ve experienced this year:

• In our opinion this year there hasn’t been a superior route setting. We would like to have harder routes, especially in the finals. Predominantly, we climbed at a grade of 8a+ but we actually need final routes at a level of 8b+ to be hard enough to separate the finalists. And it shouldn’t come down to only one move which spits the majority off like in Frankenthal or too many double tops even in the finals like in Neu-Ulm. More sustained and harder routes would add value to the events! And this is what awaits the athletes in the world cups. Young talents start training the characteristics of the routes in the lead nationals but this won’t prepare them to be successful in the world cups later.
• We would also appreciate a strong field of competitors next season again. Especially in Neu-Ulm it was nice to see the whole German lead team and the strongest competition boulderers of the country. But athletes must have great reasons to come and compete at the nationals. So far there hasn’t really been an attractive amount of prize money and we think it’s time to raise it. It’s not an economic and rational choise as a competitor to spend hundreds of euros for the travel and the accommodation and to spend a whole weekend of time to maybe collect some prize money in the end to not fully be able, even as a finalist, to re-finance the effort. If nothing changes it is only a matter of time that the cups become less and less attractive for the strongest athletes to come.
• We also would like to get rid of all the waiting times during the competitions, particularly when the youth events get integrated into the seniors‘ competition. Please, let us seniors compete on Saturday and in a shorter time. Qualification can be done at around midday and finals in the early evening without a long break of several hours in between the rounds. That requires a tight timetable but it’s definitely possible to organize that. This is also more attractive for the spectators because if they would have to watch finals on Sunday night they would overthink it twice because they have to start work on Monday again. If the finals would be on Saturday night that would have a day in between. And based on a tight schedule they wouldn’t have to stay a whole day in the gym waiting most of the time.
• And finally, meanwhile we know a lot of competitors and their teams, parents and relatives who support them during the competitions. We don’t see so many new faces though. Especially random spectators. It is only a small group of insiders who actually visit and watch the competitions but we think the competition format can be entertaining for a wider range of people. It would be nice to see working live streams and better advertisements in prior for the competitions to reach more people. From our point of view the DAV (German Climbing Federation) should invest more effort into their event marketing and promotion.

That’s it for this year’s competition climbing. We are already looking forward to the next season. Now we are already in Catalonia for some off-season rock climbing. We’ve got some great projects that we want to work on and it’s always nice to see the big rock climbers‘ family from all around the world at the crags again. It always means great climbing together and good vibes. We are excited and keep You updated with our climbing experiences there.

Find the whole result list of the juniors and the seniors German Lead Championship via the links!

Cheers D&R

Juniors podium overall – 1st Ruben, 2nd team mate Lars Hoffmann and 3rd Paul Hettich (missing)

Seniors podium overall – 1st Jan Hojer, 2nd David and 3rd Martin Tekles

The Panel (f.l.t.r.): Karl-Heinz Steinmann, David Firnenburg, Andreas Kuhnt, Britta Schweigel, Ingo Leven, Prof. Dr. Semmler-Ludwig, Martin Schönwandt, Prof. Dr. Derecik (c) Andre Bertram

On September 23rd, 2015 David was invited to the podium „Freeride, Parcour, Slacklining: Trend Sports with or without Expiration Date?“ by the Academy of Sports in Lower Saxony (GER). The panel dealt with trend sports and their influence on youth life styles and organized sports (General report in German). David was supported by Axel Hake (IG Klettern / DAV-Landesverband Niedersachsen). 

David explained that sport climbing has exceeded the initial stage of a fun sport towards a trend sport on the way to a well-established sport. There is already a recognized organized, competitional and economic infrastructure including gyms and distribution channels for specific sports products. But compared to established sports there are aspects missing such as an extensive support system for athletes, media presence as an advertising medium and a tourism and leisure economic marketing. While some regions, for example, in the Alps are already further developed in such aspects than they are in northern Germany, on the other hand, however, there are already some of them, such as Arco, that are overrun by climbing tourism with its downsides.

From Hake’s perspective who was invited to the auditorium it actually should be also important, in addition to the opportunities for young people arising from the booming gym situation and the increasing use of artificial climbing walls, to raise the possibilities for climbing in freely accessible natural areas, because they represent, just for the “gamer generation”, a close to daily life available space and a low-threshold access to natural movement experiences. Unfortunately, such freely available natural areas are on the wane in northern Germany. There is still much work to do for sports politics to achieve the potential of the forests fully recognized as a recreational sports resort and important source for youth health and athletic experience of self-efficacy and also personal limits without a social barrier.

Another essential point in the discussion was that the sports clubs and associations should use just the trend sports in the context of school cooperations to win children and teenagers and to bring them „into motion“.

Overall it was a successful event which has commanded a lively discussion with many impulses to continue.

The Auditorium (c) Andre Bertram

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