Meet Shauna Coxsey, the Olympic climber training in her Yorkshire basement

Coxsey has had to deal with Tokyo 2020’s postponement, writes Lawrence Ostlere, but she has embraced her unique home setup and launched a YouTube channel: think Joe Wicks meets Spider-Woman

Shauna Coxsey (Red Bull)

It is around this point in lockdown, as the novelty of wearing pyjamas at 3pm well and truly wears off, that the mind drifts to the parallel universe we left behind. It’s natural to imagine a scuppered holiday, to take a moment during government-mandated daily exercise to stare wistfully at a closed pub, to wonder whether this is karma for all those prayers to the God of Admin to pause time, please, just for a week or two.

Shauna Coxsey has more reason to wonder than most. As one of the world’s best climbers, the 27-year-old should be honing her extraordinary skills for the Tokyo Olympics this summer, where she stood a serious chance of winning a medal and becoming a household name with it. But with the Games pushed back to 2021, without events or formal training to attend, Coxsey has had to improvise.

“Luckily, I have a great space to train at home,” she tells The Independent. “I have a skiErg [like a rowing machine, but pulling on ropes from above – an exhausting business] in the garden shed, I have been getting out on my bike too, and our basement is dedicated to training.”

‘Dedicated’ is an understatement. In what was once the cellar beneath Coxsey’s house in Sheffield now resides a fully equipped climber’s lair: part climbing wall, part gym, part yoga studio. It is not quite the real thing, without the space to make breathtaking leaps through the air and catch a ledge by her fingertips, but it is just enough to work on the immense strength, power and flexibility needed to be an Olympic climber.

There is also every climber’s essential bit of kit, the dreaded fingerboard, from which Coxsey hangs until her fingers go numb. Sometimes she posts pictures on Instagram hanging, either with a heavy weight strapped to her waist or her dog, Arthur, balanced on her knees.

Videos have surfaced over recent weeks of Olympians all over the world making do with the bare essentials in lockdown, from swimmers practising backstroke on a skateboard, to pole vaulters reduced to the art of visualisation, so despite the obvious challenges there can be few athletes better equipped than Coxsey.

“Of course it’s not ideal to only train at home, and to train for the three Olympic climbing disciplines [in one space], but I do feel incredibly fortunate. For climbers it’s really important to keep training our fingers to keep them strong and healthy, so I have spent a lot of time hanging off my Beastmaker fingerboard.”

To help pass the time, Coxsey has launched a new YouTube channel, featuring herself training in the basement: think Joe Wicks meets Spider-Woman. Much of her regime focuses on strong fingers, powerful shoulders and reinforced glutes, but with warm-up routines based on yoga and stretching, and some baking thrown in too (Coxsey professes to be a cake addict), you do not need to transform your front room into a mountain range to join in.

“The aim is to give some insight into my life as a professional climber, as well as featuring some of my hobbies including baking which I love,” she explains. “Also, there will probably be a lot of my dog. Right now as we’re all in lockdown, I’m looking to give some training tips for climbers – and some for non-climbers! – which I’ve picked up along my career.

“I’m really fortunate in that I have a climbing wall in my cellar, but climbers can improvise around their houses to keep fit for when we’re allowed back to climb at climbing walls and outside. If you have a fingerboard then that’s a massive help, but if not you can still find ways.”

‘When the news of the delay became reality it was definitely a shock’ (Red Bull)

It is all a seismic change from what would have been Olympic preparations. How did she react when it was finally confirmed that the dream she had been relentlessly working towards for years, her first Games, had been postponed?

“When I’m training for a big event I have my head down and I’m so focussed on that process – I love being in that space – so when the delay became reality it was definitely a shock, and something that took me a while to accept, and adjust to. But right now it’s impossible to make a strict plan with so much uncertainty, so my team and I are working on setting specific goals during this to help keep my motivation.”

There was at least some relief when it was announced that athletes who had qualified for the Games would have their spot waiting for them in 2021, and it has meant that while Coxsey is still on a fierce improvised training regime, she can afford to relax a little. YouTube will keep her busy, while cycling on the roads and skiing in the garden shed will keep her on track for Tokyo. And when the lockdown tedium eventually sets in, she can always start climbing the walls.

For more info on Shauna please visit Redbull.com