La Sportiva Storyteller is a video project that talks about the everyday reality of the La Sportiva athletes, deliberately moving away from everything that is related to climbing grades and performance, choosing instead to focus on a common theme –journey, on the feelings connected to the journey and what makes our climbers really special, the fact that first and foremost they are all people with a great passion and great dreams. With athletes such as Nalle Hukkataival, Anthony Gullsten, Fabian Buhl and Silvio Reffo, Matthew Pavana curator of the project, has chosen to focus in particular on the common theme of a journey, revealing the natural curiosity of the travellers, unconscious or firm supporters of the philosophy “You only live once “.
Now is the turn of Adam Ondra, perhaps the strongest climber in the world today. With him, we look at the theme of freedom and how climbing can make you feel free.
Many may think that Adam is “simply” a talented climber, but this is only partly true. How many other talented climbers are there? How many others can claim to have accomplished what he has? In terms of performance there seems to be a kind of “Ondra scale”, a level of difficulty in which only he can compete.
And what is the variable that upsets the whole equation? The answer is both extremely simple and complicated at the same time when we are talking about champions of such substance and “fame”.
The innate desire to excel, total commitment to constantly improve, first and foremost oneself before challenging others. (In fact Adam was a late comer to the competition scene using the events more as part of a mental training as opposed to a real competition against other climbers).
For Adam there’s no excuse for not training, for not tying to do everything possible to succeed.
Having always climbed with this in mind, you might think that Adam has come to live all this as an almost self-imposed duty and so it is therefore, wonderful to hear him talk instead, about the pleasure of living life chasing a dream day after day.
This is a particular kind of pleasure that also comes from suffering and pain. He alternates three daily training sessions to his universities studies which is certainly not a common choice or the ideal way to organize your day.
In granting this interview, Adam has shown, however, an enviable serenity … because his passion makes him free to be what he most wants to be.
“Freedom without something to be passionate about is just worthless,” he says.
Could this be the secret of his happiness? Click play to find out.
INFO: La Sportiva
