MANON HILY

INTERVIEW ATHLETE
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Manon Hily

Manon Hily is one of the best climbers in the world.
In competition, she is Vice-champion of France (2018 and 2022), bronze medalist at the 2022 European Diff Championships, and bronze medalist at the 2023 Diff World Cup in Briançon.
On the rock, Manon combines performances in the 8 sup, as shown, among other things, by her last cliff trip in Saint-Léger.

Today Manon has two main projects:
  • Train to qualify for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games and be one of the few French climbers who will represent France.

  • Continue Biography, a legendary 9a+ ​​located in Céüse

Manon shares her vision of climbing with us:

"I started climbing at school in middle school. The teacher was passionate, when he saw that a young person had talent, he didn't let him go. I joined his club with my sister. At noon, he would come into the yard pulling me by the ears to take me climbing. He even made us come with him and his family to Thailand during the holidays to climb. One day the hold was too far away and he. told me “there are no small ones, there are only weak ones.” I didn’t cry and I still don’t know why… I wanted to stay even more! passed on his passion. He was our daddy of climbing.”

"The Céüse cliff!! Sometimes when I start to see it on the road, tears come to my eyes. I don't know how to explain it. It's my big favorite. I like a lot of cliffs in general When I make too much plastic, even a 6 meter cliff makes me happy 😄"

“Sleep well, get up without waking up, a good breakfast (balanced… or not). Be with the people I like. Go to the cliff (without too much walking 😛… except Céüse, she has the right), seeing that it’s going to be sunny and knowing that I’m going to tan.
Make plans, on-sight, hard routes or easier routes, it doesn't matter.  I like it when we gossip at the foot of the tracks and on the other hand I feel guilty in the evening because we talked too loudly. I like that!

Honestly, I just want to climb. Even the windmill is ok (haha)."

"No time to have another passion (haha) but later I would like to get back into tennis and surfing. I think my only passion apart from climbing is eating (Oops!). I don't work anymore at the moment, but I love my job as a nurse. The only problem is that I love it: I don't like bandages, I don't like injections and I don't like people who have cardiac arrests. without warning."

“I visualize myself just before going there. I don’t really have a ritual per se, but when I’m stressed I listen to Jul (Marseille BB!!) just before I go. I also have a notebook where I wrote down my intentions and what I need to focus my attention on, and I read it over and over (singing JUL in my head).

Otherwise, in competition, I always reread the route for 40 seconds. Often I have a checklist of what I haven't had time to do while reading (... in other words all the time... ahem)."

"Experiencing your sport better means, for me, being in agreement with the values ​​of my activity and feeling good in this community (for climbers, this translates into “eating seeds” according to other humans on the planet). C It's also about learning the rules and the evolution of the activity. It's about sharing your passion and your convictions with others (you have to know how to share the seeds. It's about being a consumer one day but an actor another day). .

It’s fortunate to have a passion that drives us throughout our lives and to be able to practice it to the best of our ability, and in a sustainable way that’s just as important. Whether by preserving our body or the rock.
In other words: Long live the top-rope at 80 years old in an authorized site with not too dirty holds!!”

"Lean without hesitation. A wall that leans less than 20 degrees is a slab to me."

“Way… bouldering has become too dangerous for my advanced age (haha)”

"Sandstone! Granite is too abrasive for my little skin (haha)"

“No fooooot, Let’s not risk an injury to the knees or hips…”

“I really like both since I got Flagship (slipper model) but I would say that the heel is the base!”

“I can take all the monos on earth with 2 fingers, even those on the Verticalboard EVO!!”