Photograph Stocksy
Think climbing is all about macho men hanging one-armed over crevices? In fact, a third of climbers in the UK are female, and our biggest climbing star is a woman – Shauna Coxsey, who will represent Team GB at Tokyo 2020, where it is due to appear for the first time (2-5 August). ‘Historically, climbing was male-dominated, but that’s disappeared,’ says instructor Sophie Cheng, of Rock Up Climbing (rockupclimbing.co.uk) and the Climbing Nomads YouTube channel. ‘There are plenty of women at the crags nowadays.’