When the skin doesn't want to go any further: Jakob Schubert's rocky path to the European Championship title Video

Jakob Schubert has been European Champion since last Thursday. A title that adds to the collection for which the 31-year-old trains hard every day. This summer, not only the corona virus forced him to take a break, but above all the skin on his hands temporarily gave way.

Jakob Schubert always wants to be at the forefront, if possible be the first. In the Climbing Championship in Munich he did exactly that again - he chose himself as the first winner of the new Olympic climbing format Boulder & Lead, thereby also securing his first European championship title. "It was a perfect dress rehearsal on the way to Paris," said Schubert immediately after the award ceremony at Munich's Königsplatz.

In a video that has just been published, he shows why the path to the European Championships was an extraordinary one and looks back on a very special summer.

To drive off the skin: Jakob Schubert on his forced break

«I've had this really weird problem with my skin for many years. It's almost like an illness that I only have in the hottest months, often June and July. At the World Cup in Innsbruck it was very bad again. My skin below my fingertips gets very, very dry and it feels like the sweat isn't coming through. I could basically take the skin and peel it off. Beneath it is a very, very thin skin.

You can't do anything but rest. So I decided to do the World Cup in Villars skipped because I wanted to get back in shape, but then unfortunately got infected with Covid. It even forced me to bed for a few days. After more than a week I was finally able to go to the climbing gym and had to invest a lot to get back in shape.

Unfortunately due to these circumstances I had to skip most of the World Cups this summer, but the most important competition of the year, the European Championship in Munich, was always on my agenda.»

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Credits: Cover picture Tobias Lanzanasto/Austrian climbing

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