MEGOS Alexander

General
OLYMPIC IMPACT
He believes that sport climbing's inclusion on the Olympic programme will help the sport become more mainstream, but is concerned it may result in less attention given to traditional rock climbing outdoors. "It may well be that climbers like Adam Ondra and I represent the last generation of climbers who are good at both competitive climbing and rock climbing. Many of the athletes at the Olympics will be significantly younger than me and may have nothing to do with outdoor rock climbing. I think the main focus for the spectators at the Olympics will be the speed component, which is not necessarily a criticism, but that's not what climbing is about for me. The Olympics may mean the gap between outdoor and indoor climbers will become larger in the future." (alpin.de, 09 Oct 2019, spiegel.de, 09 Jan 2020)

OLYMPIC FOCUS
He says he began focusing on competing at the Olympic Games at the end of 2018. "From that point on, I accepted that I would do less rock climbing and train more indoors. It is really cool to have qualified [for Tokyo], but winning a medal is definitely not an incentive. The chance that somebody like me, who has only been competing for two years, winning a medal, is rather slim. Ultimately, only 20 athletes worldwide qualify for the Olympics and to be one of them is great. But I want to see how far I can go in climbing and where my limit is." (spiegel.de, 09 Jan 2020; br.de, 20 Nov 2019)

ROUTE RECORDS
He keeps diaries of his most difficult climbs. "I started writing down every grade 8a and harder that I have ever done in my life in a book. Each of these books has got approximately 700 routes. I have three full ones, and one half one [as of 2019]. That makes 2500 routes that I have climbed." (Patagonia Youtube Channel, 19 Nov 2019)

In 2018 he became the first climber to ascend Perfecto Mundo in Margalef, Spain. (rockandice.com, 10 May 2018; planetmountain.com, 09 May 2018; hardclimbs.info, 01 Dec 2018)