Ai Mori

In 2016, Mori won Lead Japan Cup, becoming the youngest winner of the competition at age 12.[3] She has repeated as the national lead champion in 2018, 2020, 2021, and 2022. Mori also won the Boulder Japan Cup in 2021 and finished second place in 2018.[4]

Mori made her senior international competition climbing debut in 2019, winning two bronze medals in lead and one in bouldering World Cups.[5][6][7][8] Later that year, at age 15, she placed third in the lead category at the IFSC Climbing World Championships,[9] becoming the youngest Japanese climber to medal at the World Championship. Akiyo Noguchi had held the previous record with her 2005 bronze medal in lead at age 16.[10][11] In November and December 2019, Mori finished fifth in the combined category at the Olympic qualifying event in Toulouse, France. However, Japan had already filled its athlete quota for the 2020 Olympic Games, so Mori did not compete at the Games despite finishing in qualifying places.[12]

In September 2022, Mori took first place at the World Cup event in Koper, Slovenia,[13] finishing ahead of second-place finisher Janja Garnbret, who had won all four lead World Cups of the season coming into Koper.[14] Mori was competing in her first World Cup event of the year, and her first international event of any kind since the 2020 Olympic qualifying event in 2019.[15] She followed this up with first-place finishes in another two World Cups events, at the lead event in Edinburgh, Scotland,[16] and the season-ending combined boulder and lead event in Morioka, Japan.[17]

In 2023, Mori took part in the 2023 IFSC Climbing World Championships and became the world champion in lead, becoming the first Japanese athlete to win a world title in the discipline.[18] She also qualified for the 2024 Olympics by placing third in the combined event.[19]

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