TBP 303: Natalia Grossman on Knee Surgery, Competition Mindset, & Training

Natalia Grossman is a 24-year-old American professional climber who lives in Salt Lake City, Utah. She broke onto the World Cup scene in 2021 when she became the overall Bouldering World Cup champion and finished in second place in the overall Lead World Cup. That same year, she won World Championships in Moscow in Bouldering and placed 2nd in Lead.

She proceeded to win the overall Bouldering World Cup in 2022, 2023, and 2024, making her the most successful American World Cup climber in history. In 2022 she came in 3rd place for the overall Lead World Cup season. In 2023 she also won the Pan Am Games in Santiago in both Bouldering and Lead. She qualified for the Olympics in 2024 and finished in 11th place.

In February of this year (2025), she unfortunately tore her ACL and meniscus, and sprained her MCL during a training session and had to have surgery. She is now about 9 months out from surgery and has won both competitions she entered: the Lead North American Cup in Salt Lake in August and the Bouldering Pan American Cup in Colombia in November.

Besides competition climbing, she has sent up to V14 and 5.14c outside, but has focused most of her time and training on World Cup comps. Natalia graduated from University of Colorado at Boulder with a degree in psychology and is considering getting her master’s in mental health counseling.

In this interview, we talk about her comeback from her surgery, her mindset for competition climbing, and her training, among many other things:

More Details:

• How she injured herself
• Her injury rehab and how it’s changed her as a climber
• How she got so good at climbing
• What impact her coaches have had on her
• What sets her apart from other climbers
• What it’s like competing with your best friends
• How the pressures to be light have affected her
• What she eats
• What she sacrifices to be a champion
• How she trains

It was an honor to interview someone I have watched compete for years (I love watching World Cups!), and I appreciated Natalia giving us her time and being so vulnerable in sharing about her life.