French athlete Anouk Garnier has ascended 110 metres to the second floor of the Eiffel Tower in just 18 minutes, breaking a world rope climbing record.
Garnier, aged 34, is a two-time obstacle course world champion, and managed to scale the Eiffel Tower using a free-hanging rope on Wednesday morning.
“I’ve visualised this moment so much, worked so hard for a year to get here that I can’t believe it’s really happened,” she said afterwards.
“If there was one thing I never doubted, it was that I was going to do it.”
With her 110 metre climb, Garnier managed to beat the previous men’s rope climbing record held by South Africa’s Thomas Van Tonder, who climbed 90 metres and Dane Ida Mathilde Steensgaard from Denmark, who held the women’s record of 26 metres for climbing the Copenhagen Opera House.
Garnier said she told herself she could beat 26 metres and decided to pick another monument to climb. That’s when she settled on the world-famous Eiffel Tower.
Garnier has used the opportunity to raise funds for the League Against Cancer. She explained it’s a cause very close to her heart.
“My mother is affected by cancer. For me, it was important to surpass myself for a great cause, to advance research and treatments for cancer,” she told BFMTV.
“I trained for this event for a year. I thought of my mother, of my family, I had no right to give up.”
Garnier has been selected to carry the Olympic torch, representing France, in a ceremony in May ahead of the Paris Olympics.