Jain Kim

Jain Kim or Kim Ja-in is an international rock climber. Born in 1988 in Govang-si, South Korea, she has competed mainly in lead climbing and bouldering. Kim’s parents are Kim Hak-eun and Lee Seung-hyung, they met through a common love of mountaineering in the mountains and as a young child, Kim watched her brothers climb and was inspired to do so herself, beginning training in rock climbing at twelve years old.

Jain Kim had her debut win on the world stage at the age of 21 in 2009 at Brno in the Czech republic. Following this, she continued to achieve at a top level in competitive rock climbing. Some of her most significant achievements are winning Lead Climbing World Cup three times, the Lead Climbing World Championship once and the Rock Master once. Kim said she “wants people to see how attractive and fun rock climbing is as a sport”. Kim is passionate about rock climbing and loves the challenge of finding the best way to get to the top.

Kim’s target is the summer Olympics in Tokyo; the Olympics will require climbers to compete across the 3 disciplines, lead, boulder and speed. Lead climbing is Kim’s specialty and she looks ahead to proving herself to be a key competitor in the sport. Tokyo’s new format will present her with a challenge, having to compete in speed climbing which she has not done before.