When I interview people for this Conversation with… series, there is usually something that sticks in my mind as an angle or direction that the writing will go, and for Olympic champion Aleksandra "Ola" Miroslaw I kept thinking about growth, learning and developing  and usually in parallel with something or someone else.

Why? Well, Ola started climbing in 2007, and World Climbing – then the IFSC – started in 2007. Both grew and developed in climbing simultaneously. Ola began dating someone in 2014 that would later become her husband and coach, a journey they took together in many different ways. Two stories of growth, learning and developing.

Before we get into it, another theme that was running through my mind, and again always does with these pieces - the personal side of things.

I have been lucky to interview Ola many times, but they have always been in competition settings – when sometimes things have gone very well, and sometimes not so. But sitting talking to Ola, just me and her (although through a screen), I like this version of her. Relaxed, very talkative, and very honest and enthusiastic in her responses.

I hope I’m not offending Ola when I say this, but I think there is a difference between the two Ola’s – competition and home – but after our talk I understand even more why that is. It’s neither good or bad, it’s individual to every athlete, and I love finding out about that, and I’m glad I could with Ola.

Right, let’s get into it: 2007.

Ola’s climbing journey began at her school in Lublin because of her sister Gosia.

“My older sister started in like 2005 and for almost every competition - Polish Cup, Polish Championships - she won a medal or trophy. I was looking at her, and I wanted to be her.

“It wasn't a jealousy or rivalry, it was more like when you have an older sister or brother, you look at them and see what they are doing, and you think this is the way you need to live. Like it's the only path of living.”

Starting the same year as the International Federation, Ola’s journey shows how far the sport has come. Now, largely thanks to Ola there is a World Climbing Series event in the heart of Krakow, but it wasn’t like that in 2007.

“Climbing in general was in a completely different place than it is now. In my city there were three climbing walls. One in my school, one was in the fire station - but it was closed to the public and only for the firefighters, and another very old, small boulder gym at the university.

“The wall I started on at my school was a regular Lead wall. It was a classic climbing wall, about seven or eight metres high. Part of it was used for Lead climbing, part for top rope. That’s also where I ran my first Speed runs in the classic format.

“I trained both Lead and Speed. During my junior years I competed in those two disciplines at Polish national competitions, and later I also took part in Boulder events.”

Looking at Ola’s career now, with multiple world records and a cabinet full of World Cup medals, you wouldn’t have thought things nearly didn’t happen because of the one thing all Speed climbers hate – the dreaded false start.

“I actually didn't qualify for my first international event in 2009, which was the World Youth Championships, because of a false start at the Polish Championships. I wanted to go, and thankfully my coach wanted me to go. He asked my parents to take me for that competition and cover the costs, since I wasn’t officially selected for the team.”

I’ll let you guess what position Ola came...

**"**I don't remember very well because it was such a long time ago. But yeah, I won. It was so surreal for me because it was my first or second international competition and the only medal for Poland, and I was not supposed to be there. It was kind of crazy.

“I actually remember that because it was in Valence in France we drove from Poland and I remember that I went sleep in the car after that competition and woke up in the night and checked to see if I had the trophy and medal. I thought I was going to the competition and not coming back from it.”

From a first international competition to the biggest show on Earth. It was Climbing’s first time at the Olympic Games in 2020 (eventually 2021 because of Covid), and it seemed fitting that Ola would be there to – the parallel growth.

“Honestly, qualifying for Tokyo 2020 wasn't on my bucket list at that time. I was in Hachioji for the World Championship to defend my Speed title, but since we had to compete in the combined format I also had to do Boulder and Lead. I think that competition showed a lot of people how important it was to be the best in at least one discipline.”

Climbing in the Olympic Games at Tokyo 2020 wasn’t perfect – that is no secret. It was however a stepping stone to the end goal, and where World Climbing is now: a programme sport with three separate medals for the three disciplines at LA28.

But at Tokyo 2020 there was a Combined format which meant climbers had to train on the disciplines they usually didn’t, and Ola was no different to anyone else.

“Before Hachioji I didn’t really train Boulder or Lead, just a few sessions here and there. But after I qualified, I had to. It was a big challenge because I needed a different coach for Lead and Boulder, and I couldn’t change the volume I had to do for Speed. So it was just more and more.

“The Olympics were postponed, which unexpectedly extended the preparation period. The training load was enormous, and my body didn’t withstand it. Nine months before Tokyo, I tore my finger pulley. That injury made the preparation for my first Olympic Games even more complicated.

“I came back to climbing in February, and Mateusz and I had to decide whether to push to maximum intensity knowing the risk of re-injury and potentially missing the Games. We took that risk. And I came back with my first world record.”

We will circle back to the Olympics a little later – with good reason. For now, I wanted to know how Speed has changed from the perspective of the first Speed Olympic champion and someone who has been there right from the start.

“Everything has changed. Everything.

“When I started competing I did it simply because I loved it. I loved training, and competing brought me so much joy. It was pure passion. The Olympics changed the perspective. I’m not judging whether it’s good or bad, it’s just that when a sport becomes Olympic, everything around it changes. Partners and sponsors came into my life, expectations grew and I started looking at training and preparation in a completely different way. It’s serious now.

“Up until about 2018 I was combining my training with a regular full-time job. It was challenging. Because of the Olympics and the support of my sponsors, now I have the privilege to fully focus on training, competitions and recovery.”

It wasn’t just Ola that changed though – the World Climbing/Ola growth parallel.

“The level of the competition and the way events are organised have totally changed. In my opinion, it’s for the better.

“I remember the European Championships in 2017. It was raining and the call zone was full of people: coaches, athletes from other disciplines, competitors, everyone was there. It felt chaotic. And then, the European Championships in 2022 it was the complete opposite.

“I remember a competition when the timing system wasn’t working and we had to re-run qualification. There were three judges with stopwatches, and they had to take the average of all three times. I had already finished my run, changed my clothes, and was ready to leave when suddenly we were told that qualifications would be repeated.

“Now I can’t even imagine a competition being measured with stopwatches. Even though today’s systems aren’t perfect and technical issues still happen, it’s still a total game changer.”

So, we have covered the start of climbing for Ola and World Climbing – now onto the next big growth topic, and this time it’s not just about Ola.

Many will know, some may not, but Ola is coached by her husband, Mateusz. A partnership that has been going for over a decade, both on and off the wall.

“I started training with Mateusz in 2014. He’s the second coach I’ve had. My first coach was the one I started climbing with, but around 2014 I felt I had stopped growing and developing. So, I decided I needed to change something.”

Mateusz is a bit like Ola for me. I have spoken to him at events, but I don’t know him so well. I know him as a coach and have seen him in that position since I started at World Climbing – he’s one of those people I just assumed has always done it, so I was surprised to find out that wasn’t the case. Side note: this is why I love these conversations; I find out some things I never knew about people.

**“**Mateusz never planned to become a coach, especially not in Speed climbing. But he genuinely loves helping people. Many of the things he does in life come from that simple desire to support someone. He’s just a really good person.

“In 2014, when I came to him, I didn’t really know what to do. I knew I wanted to change coaches, but back then Speed climbing wasn’t what it is today. Very few people even understood the discipline. And he simply said, ‘Okay, I’ll help you.’

“He started reading books, learning, taking courses. All because of me. It was the right timing and the right situation for both of us. I was developing as an athlete, and he was developing as a coach. Every year he learned something new, and that meant I was growing too. From one simple sentence - ‘I’ll help you’ - we eventually reached Olympic gold.”

Ola and Mateusz were a couple first before they were coach and athlete, but what was the dynamic like – both inside and outside of climbing?

“It can still be tricky sometimes. You can’t fully separate the roles - he’s my coach and my husband at the same time, and those worlds naturally overlap. Of course, we argue like everyone does and we’re still learning how to make it work.

“Sometimes you have to keep feelings inside, so they don’t explode during a competition. But that only works because we’ve learned how to communicate honestly, even about difficult things in our relationship. And at the same time, there’s also a bond between us where I don’t even have to say anything and he just knows.

“I remember in Seoul at the World Championships I felt the TV camera operator was too close to me. I just looked at him, he looked at me, and he just knew what I was thinking. Then he went straight to the organisers and asked them to move him back a little.”

I said I would circle back to the Olympic Games, and there was a reason for that. One of the main reasons I wanted to talk to Ola was because of something that stuck with me.

At a World Cup in China in 2024 I remember Ola did an interview for the World Climbing Club about her mentality and change of approach after missing out on Olympic qualification at the 2023 World Champs.

The psychological of sport fascinates me, so I wanted to ask quite a direct and loaded question considering what she has said before about the mentality change – did you win at Paris 2024 because you didn’t qualify at Bern 2023?

“I would say that because of the World Championships in 2023, Paris happened.”

Before we elaborate on that, it’s probably good to get an idea of Ola’s psychology with her other Olympic experience – Tokyo 2020.

“I was fourth in Tokyo, but honestly it felt right. In many ways, things actually went in my favour. Another Speed climber, Anouck Jaubert, made it to the final, and her strong performance in Speed helped push other athletes back in the rankings.

“I had exactly the same number of points as Akiyo Noguchi. But she was stronger than me in two disciplines, and I was better than her in only one. That’s what decided the medal. And I think if I had won a medal in Tokyo, it would have been more about circumstances than truly earning it. I wanted to earn it.”

Back to 2023/2024.

“Losing the Olympic ticket at the World Championships in Bern forced me to grow, even though at the time it didn’t feel like growth. That was the first time in my life I experienced anxiety. Not just at a competition, but ever. And I didn’t even realise what was happening.

“It happened when I fell in the semi-final. Honestly, that had never happened to me before. But falling wasn’t the hardest part. The hardest part was that afterward, I felt nothing. I wanted to feel angry, sad, to cry, anything. But there was nothing. Mateusz later told me it was the first time he was scared. He said all he could see in my eyes was emptiness. It was a very difficult moment. But it helped me see that I’m not a machine. I’m human.

“Up to that point, I had done everything. World record. World champion. World Cup winner. I had already been to the Olympics. Everyone expected me to get the ticket. People were saying, ‘There’s only one ticket in Speed, because Ola will take the other.’ It became too much.

“Looking back, I realise that at that time I was just showing up and ticking boxes. Competition after competition. I wasn’t really present. I wasn’t truly experiencing it. It became mechanical. I wasn’t asking myself what I felt, I was just moving forward, crossing things off the list.”

As we all know Ola did eventually get her Olympic ticket, but it didn’t come easy.

“The four weeks between Bern and Rome was the darkest four weeks of my life. I didn’t want to train. I felt very bad inside. I wanted to just disappear. I wanted to feel better, but I just didn’t know how.

“Physically I was in good shape, but I would go to the wall in tears. My self-confidence was at the lowest point.”

For me personally, as I said the mental side of sport fascinates me, but I also think it isn’t talked about as much as it perhaps should be, so I’m glad Ola is being so open about everything.

**“**The day before the Olympic qualification event in Rome, the anxiety came back. I remember sitting with Mateusz and telling him everything that was going on in my head.

I was staring at the wall in our hotel room, and strangely for Rome there was a picture of the Eiffel Tower. It felt symbolic. Somehow, that image of Paris helped me step outside of my own head.

“The next day I just wanted to be grateful for every run. I wasn’t thinking about the ticket, just the next race. That morning, during qualification, I broke the world record. But before the evening finals, everything suddenly caught up with me. I felt completely overwhelmed. I remember sitting there, maybe 10 or 15 minutes before the finals started, and I was just crying. It wasn’t sadness. It wasn’t happiness. It was just too much emotion at once. Then I had to stand up and compete.  

“In Rome, I secured the Olympic ticket. But my approach to that competition was completely different from before. I wasn’t chasing the result. I was just present, focusing on one run at a time. When we qualified, Mateusz and I were happy, of course we were, but at the same time, we both knew there was still a problem we had to face. We couldn’t go to the Olympics with things feeling the same way. It couldn’t look like that in Paris.

“I started working with a psychologist in December 2023, and I would say it’s been one of the best decisions of my life. What happened in Bern and Rome was the impulse. It made me realise that I couldn’t ignore the mental side anymore.

“I really needed it. I understand myself much better, my emotions, my reactions. Everything has changed since then. My approach, the way I focus. I used to think only about the final result.  Now I think about the process and what it actually takes to get there.”

Ola has spoken a lot about change, and it stepped up a notch after Paris 2024 when she was the only Polish athlete to win gold that summer.

“I started to become a public figure. People would recognise me on the street, at the airport, even when I was shopping - it was all very new to me.

“You have to learn how to deal with it, you have to be more aware of how you show up. Everyone has bad days when you are a bit tired and grumpy, but now I have to be more conscious of that. I can’t just walk into a shop in a bad mood, because people will see me that way and that’s the version of me they’ll remember. It doesn’t mean I’m not human, it just means I have to be more aware.

“There are also more responsibilities now. The partnerships and sponsorships have grown and that comes with more to manage. I have a great team around me though. I have a manager, my psychologist and Mateusz. They work things out together and take care of a lot, which helps me so much, especially during intense training blocks when I need to focus fully on my preparation.”

Something else I have learned through my time in media – not everyone loves the spotlight. It’s easy to think that Ola is someone who does considering she has been in it for so long, but that is not the case.

**“**The only place where I truly feel comfortable in the spotlight is during competition. I’m quite introverted and become a public figure is something I’ve had to learn. Sometimes I just want, you know, to sit with my closest friends and share quiet moments, talk and be normal. I’m still learning how to balance both worlds.

“All of this has made me appreciate the small things and the little time I get for myself.”

I’ve spoken to Ola a lot about climbing, but I also like to know about people outside of climbing as well. I know that she likes the little simple moments she gets, and now I know Mateusz doesn’t always like them…

“I really like spending time in nature. I am not talking about climbing, just walking, sitting and being outside.

“Mateusz isn’t very happy with me sometimes because I say I'm going for a quick walk with Loki and I leave my phone behind and stay out for two hours. He can’t contact me. But sometimes I really need this. It's kind of my escape.”

Loki is Ola and Mateusz’s dog. And despite what you think, it’s not because of a secret love for Marvel movies.

“Loki is the God of Mischief, and my Loki is a little mischievous. We were looking to get a dog and we went to see some puppies, there was about five or six, and Loki was just different to all the others. They would all come up to you, but he would kind of tease you by running up to you and then running off to the side at the last minute or he would just be playing in a bush or something.”

Apart from taking ‘short’, two-hour walks, what else does Ola like to do with her time?

“I really like surfing, even though I’m still at a very basic level. I’m learning. I also got the chance to drive cars on the track, and I really enjoyed that too. Both require full focus. You have to concentrate on the one thing you are doing, whether it’s a wave or a track. There’s no space to think about the problems, phone or everything you have to do today or tomorrow. I really like that.”

I don’t always like to ask athletes about what they will do after their competition career has finished, I think they should enjoy the here and now, but for Ola I feel I have to as she has announced this season will be her last.

“I'm sure I'm not going to get bored after I retire. I have some ideas, plans and projects in my mind. Most of them are focused on introducing climbing to more people, showing them that it’s a great and fun sport.

“I think it’s a great sport for kids. That's why last year I started my academy, the 6:02 Academy. During our classes we focus more on general physical development and movement, not just on climbing itself.

“I feel like this is my way of saying thank you for all the support I’ve received in Poland.”

As we come to the end of the interview Ola gives me some of my favourite answers from our time together. Three answers from three questions.

Question one: What is your goal for the season, and will we see a sub-6?

“It has never really been about the records for me. What matters most are the titles. For me, a world record is just a by-product of being physically and mentally prepared and putting everything together at the right moment. I also believe that everything in life happens for me, not against me. So maybe there’s a reason I haven’t run under six seconds yet. But I don’t obsess over it. I just want to run my best races.

“I just want to prepare well for Krakow and say goodbye to the people in Poland in the right way. A lot of my focus is on that competition.”

Let’s see if all those little things have led to a sub-6 goodbye from Ola this season…

Question two: can you tell me something that people don't know about you?

“Maybe they don't know, because I don't want them to.”

Maybe it’s not just Loki that is a bit mischievous…

With my media hat on, it’s not a good answer for an interviewer. With my personal hat on, I think it’s a great and funny answer so I’m going to let it slide (although any athletes who does one of these conversations with me in the future, Ola has taken that answer and I’m not letting you get off with it that easy now…)

Question three: You are coming towards the end of your career, is there anything you want to say to people?

“Be brave. Sometimes we have to make tough decisions, and even the easy ones can feel hard, so be brave and make them.

“I remember a quote about Mikaela Shiffrin that said there are two types of champions, the ones with incredible technique, and the ones who just never stop fighting. I want to be known as the one who never stopped fighting.

“Being a champion isn’t something you achieve only in the arena, by winning medals. The path to becoming the very best is almost never easy. It’s not smooth. It’s difficult. And that’s exactly where true greatness is built.”

A tough decision for any athlete is when to call time on your career – and this is one I feel is a brave one from Ola. She is, and has been for a long time, at the top of the game. I think, as I’m sure many others would too, that as things stand right now Ola could go to LA28 with a great shot at a medal, but, quite simply it doesn’t matter what I think, or anyone else – it only matters what Ola thinks.

So, let’s just all take 2026, Ola’s last season, to enjoy watching someone climb and fight, and say goodbye on her terms in her own country. We may be losing her from the World Climbing circuit, but climbing isn’t losing her altogether – and that is a good thing.

By Richard Aspland