is a Japanese professional

rock climber Rock climbing is a climbing sports discipline that involves ascending routes consisting of natural rock in an outdoor environment, or on artificial resin climbing walls in a mostly indoor environment. Routes are documented in guidebooks, and ...

who specializes in

competition bouldering Competition climbing is a form of regulated rock-climbing competition held indoors on purpose-built artificial climbing walls (earlier versions were held on external natural rock surfaces). The three competition climbing disciplines are lead ...

as well as outdoor

bouldering Bouldering is a form of rock climbing that is performed on small rock formations or Climbing wall, artificial rock walls without the use of ropes or Climbing harness, harnesses. While bouldering can be done without any equipment, most climbers ...

and

sport climbing Sport climbing (or bolted climbing) is a type of free climbing in the sport of rock climbing where the Lead climbing, lead climber clips their climbing rope, rope — via a quickdraw — into pre-drilled in-situ bolt (climbing), bolts for their ...

. She participates in both competition bouldering and

competition lead climbing Competition climbing is a form of regulated rock-climbing competition held indoors on purpose-built artificial climbing walls (earlier versions were held on external natural rock surfaces). The three competition climbing disciplines are lead ...

disciplines. She is known for winning the

IFSC Climbing World Cup The IFSC Climbing World Cup is a series of competition climbing events held during the year at various locations around the world, organized by the International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC). At each event, the athletes compete in three d ...

in Bouldering four times. In her home country, she won Bouldering Japan Cup nine times consecutively from 2005 to 2014, which no other Japanese athlete has been able to match. She retired from competition climbing after competing and winning a bronze medal in the

2020 Summer Olympics The officially the and officially branded as were an international multi-sport event that was held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some of the preliminary sporting events beginning on 21 July 2021. Tokyo ...

Early life

Boulder Worldcup Vienna 29-05-2010b final14 Akiyo Noguchi

Noguchi grew up on a cattle farm in the

Ibaraki Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Ibaraki Prefecture has a population of 2,828,086 (1 July 2023) and has a geographic area of . Ibaraki Prefecture borders Fukushima Prefecture to the north, ...

. From a young age she would climb on buildings, trees and sometimes even on the cows. In 2000, when she was 11 years old, she tried a real climbing wall for the first time, during a holiday trip to

Guam Guam ( ; ) is an island that is an Territories of the United States, organized, unincorporated territory of the United States in the Micronesia subregion of the western Pacific Ocean. Guam's capital is Hagåtña, Guam, Hagåtña, and the most ...

. Back at home she immediately joined a local climbing gym. Her father later built her a climbing wall in an old cattle barn on the farm.

Competition climbing

In 2007, she started competing in the Bouldering World Cups, reaching the podium three times. In 2009, she won the World Cup in bouldering, over the previous year's champion Anna Stöhr. Noguchi repeated as champion in 2010, 2014 and 2015. In the 2011, 2012 and 2013 bouldering events at the World Cup she placed second. She has also won the combined climbing title at the World Cup three times. Noguchi was also awarded the La Sportiva Competition Award in 2010, "for her victories and the positive spirit she exudes during competitions". In 2019 Akiyo Noguchi won a silver medal in the combined competition at the climbing World Championship which qualified her for the

. Noguchi had contemplated retirement from competition climbing as early as 2016, but when it was announced that climbing would become an Olympic sport in 2020 for the first time she decided to try and qualify for Olympics in her home country. Noguchi attended her final

in Innsbruck in June 2021, finishing a career of 169 World Cups and World Championships and 75 podium places. On July 13, 2021, she published an autobiography. She finished her climbing career with a bronze medal at the

Personal life

On December 25, 2021, Noguchi and fellow Japanese sport climber

Tomoa Narasaki is a Japanese professional rock climber who specializes in bouldering and competition bouldering. Early life Narasaki started climbing at age 10, together with Sachi Amma, in Sachi's family climbing gym. Previously, he had been training appara ...

announced their marriage on their respective social media pages.

Rankings

World Cup

World Championships

World Cup podiums

Lead

Bouldering

Rock climbing

Redpointed routes

: :* ''Mind Control'' - Oliana ( SPN) - December 10, 2013 : :* ''Liquid Finger'' - Joyama ( JPN) - December 12, 2008

Boulder problems

: * ''Aguni'' - Mizugaki ( JPN) - November 2014. * ''A Maze of Death'' - Bishop (

CAL Cal or CAL may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Cal'' (novel), a 1983 novel by Bernard MacLaverty * "Cal" (short story), a science fiction short story by Isaac Asimov * ''Cal'' (1984 film), an Irish drama starring John Lynch and Helen Mir ...

) - 2016. * ''Euro Trash'' - Little Cottonwood Canyon ( UT) - May 2022. : * ''Monsterman SD'' - Jyougasaki ( JPN) - February 2010. * ''Evilution Direct'' - Bishop (

) - 2016.

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Noguchi, Akiyo 1989 births Living people Japanese rock climbers Asian Games medalists in sport climbing Sport climbers at the 2018 Asian Games Asian Games gold medalists for Japan Medalists at the 2018 Asian Games Competitors at the 2009 World Games Competitors at the 2017 World Games Sport climbers at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic sport climbers for Japan Olympic bronze medalists for Japan Olympic medalists in sport climbing Medalists at the 2020 Summer Olympics IFSC Climbing World Championships medalists IFSC Climbing World Cup overall medalists Boulder climbers Japanese competition climbers People from Ryūgasaki, Ibaraki