Adam Ondra

I think speed climbing is kind of an artificial discipline. Climbers compete on the same holds and train on the same holds, which doesn't have much in common with the climbing philosophy in my opinion.

What I like about climbing that it's so broad. For certain periods I can focus on sport climbing and then I can shift my focus more on the bouldering or I can shift my focus on climbing in the mountains.

Climbing in a beautiful location, the goal is not to power my way up but to become for that moment a part of the landscape, part of the rock.

I think it wouldn't be wise to lose the best years of my sports career at university.

Bouldering on real rock, which I'm more used to climbing on, is a lot more static and requires mostly finger power, whereas competition-style boulder problems are about coordination.

I felt the strongest impulse to climb when I entered my first competitions.

I think climbing deserves to be an Olympic sport, as it is one of the few natural movements - like swimming or running, things that people have been doing for a thousand years.

The Dawn Wall is so obviously the hardest big-wall climb in the world, so that was the challenge.

What really motivates me to climb harder and harder is not necessarily that I want to push my limits or show who's best, but climbing harder and harder routes makes it more fun.

Climbing is great, and I don't think I'll ever tire of it, because there are so many different disciplines.

When I was young, I loved the feeling of escaping to the rocks on a Friday afternoon with my parents.

If I'm climbing really slow, I kind of feel like, ‘Hmm, this is weird.' Like a fish without water."