Jessica Pilz

Jessica Pilz (born 22 November 1996) is an Austrian professional rock climber who specializes in competition climbing. She won the bronze medal in the combined bouldering and lead climbing event at the 2024 Summer Olympics.

Climbing career

Competition climbing

Pilz started competing in 2010, both in competition lead climbing and competition bouldering. From 2011 to 2015, she won six international youth competitions in lead climbing. In 2014, she also won both the European Youth Cup and Youth Championships in bouldering.

In 2017, Pilz won the Winter Military World Games both in lead climbing and bouldering.

In 2018, Pilz won the lead climbing event at the 2018 IFSC Climbing World Championships in Innsbruck by climbing the route a few seconds faster than the former World Champion, Janja Garnbret. She won the bronze medal in the combined event at the same World Championships.

In 2019, Pilz placed 10th in the combined event at the 2019 IFSC Climbing World Championships, qualifying her for the 2020 Olympics, where she finished 7th.

In 2021, Pilz won the combined event at the 2021 IFSC Climbing World Championships.

In 2023, Pilz qualified to compete in the combined event at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris by placing second in the combined event at the 2023 IFSC Climbing World Championships. Pilz won the overall title in lead climbing in the 2023 IFSC Climbing World Cup series.

In 2024, Pilz won the bronze medal in the combined event at the 2024 Summer Olympics.

In 2024, Pilz won the overall Lead world cup title for the second time. Besides 2 silvers in the lead world cups in Chamonix and Koper she won the gold medal in Seoul.

Pilz and fellow Austrian climber Jakob Schubert, competed as a duo and took the Gold title in the Red Bull Dual Ascent.

Rock climbing

In November 2024, she redpointed Papichulo, a graded sport climbing route in Spain. Pilz also redpointed Paint it Black, an graded sport route in the Zillertal Valley, Austria.

In November 2023, she completed the following routes in Antalya, Turkey: Imhotep 8a (flash) Paluze (1l.) 8a (OS) American Airlines 8a+ Nothing Else Matters 8b (hard) Catch the Rainbow 8b+/c Panic Room 8c Aaron 8c (without knee pads) Kaos 8c Beastmaker 8c Andreas Blues 8c+

In January 2016, during a short trip to the famous crag of Oliana in Spain, she redpointed two graded sport climbing routes.

Rankings IFSC Climbing World Cup