The Climb At The End Of The Tunnel | WOTW Ep.2

It's really easy for me to remember that feeling because, well, I've had like eight months to think about it, so... My whole world fell apart. My name is Swanagh Vianasson, I'm 29, and I'm a French climber. My mom told me that when I was in primary school, I was really, really shy. So, yeah, I guess climbing made me change that. Not that I think about it. I work as an engineer for an architectural planning company. Basically, I work part-time, full-time during the week, but I can take more holidays. For me, it's really important to have work, private life, and climbing. I need all of them. I work in my pyjamas all day long. I love it. What do I climb? Why do I climb? Oh, wow, that's a good question. Because I like it? Climbing has been, is, and will continue to be the best school of life for me. It has taught me many things, like how to accept failure, how to succeed. Climbing has taught me everything. I started climbing when I was 10. I was doing many sports, and my mom brought me to 100 competitions. She's kind of my best friend. She's always been there for me. Seeing her every day, I'm like, yeah, I want to be like her when I'm old. Sorry, Mom. A year ago, I was living my best life, and I was psyched. It was all going well until I went to a bouldering competition in Barcelona. I heard a big crack in my ankle, and I knew right away that there was something really wrong. I booked an appointment for an ultrasound, which I got for two weeks later, which was a bit too late. They saw that I had broken two ligaments. I went to see that surgeon. So he told me, yes, you do need surgery if you want to be able to surf and climb again. But unfortunately, I can't perform it right now because of the lockdown. So, yeah, I just kept crying. I just spent the whole day crying, and I didn't know what to do. I just kept thinking that, yeah, if I had done the ultrasound five or seven days before that, I could have gotten the surgery before. I lost basically five, six months. Yeah, it was mentally tough. I thought about giving up a thousand times, I think. The first two months after my injury, I couldn't sleep. When you can't sleep, it's really, really hard. When I give up, I always call my mom. I always remember something she used to tell me when I was younger. There are two categories of people in life, the persons who don't fight and fighters. And she always told me, you're a fighter, so there's a time for crying. But at some point, you have to stand up again and fight back. Never give up. Fight back. So we're in Oriana, and we're here to climb. The first time I touched the wall, I don't even know how to explain that feeling. I was almost crying because I was super happy. Fisheye is a very powerful 8C. It's 50 meters long. It's a hard grade, something I've never done. There are approximately 120 moves, divided in seven different sections. The first 20 meters are quite sustained, and then that's when the first crux section starts. So at the end of the first crux, there's a rest. And then there's a move with a pretty high heel hook. It really freaks me out every time I do it, because it's quite intense for the ankle. I've always been a hard worker, even when I was a child. I've always wanted to do well, so I've been like that my whole life, I guess. I'm trying to accept that I can't be perfect every day. And that I don't need to be perfect every day. I know it's going to take a while to feel 100% good again. I'm getting there. Now I'm really focusing on that, on my well-being. The fight! When you're an athlete, injuries are part of the game. But it's not what's the most important. The most important is just how you deal with it. I don't want to say you get the luck you deserve, but something like that. It's something I worked hard for. It's not just something that fell from the sky, you know. I just want to climb for the rest of my life. That's it.