Climber

Sarah Larcombe

“I feel inspired by the people in my community who are working to make climbing more inclusive and accessible. It can be really hard work, but I see the differences they’ve made, and it inspires me to keep working towards those goals too.”

When Sarah Larcombe made her competitive debut at the Salt Lake City World Cup in 2022, she never expected to come away from the event as the first Australian to ever medal at an IFSC World Cup. Three years prior to this, Sarah wasn’t even sure she’d be able to rock climb with a prosthetic leg. Now, she takes pride in not only having the skills to compete on the global stage, but to independently climb outdoors – a pipe dream when she began climbing in 2019.

While Sarah’s first gold medal will stand as a pinnacle in her career, it’s her advocacy for diversity, inclusion, and accessibility, that has her emerging as a true trailblazer in the Australian adaptive climbing space.

Sarah was born with congenital defects in her right leg and underwent a below-knee amputation at a young age. Despite now embracing her disability, Sarah admits that as a child she felt societal pressure to ‘overcome’ it through success in sports including swimming, athletics, and horse riding. While competitive climbing was not yet part of the repertoire, Sarah spent her childhood years climbing a massive pear tree in the backyard of her family home in Melbourne. Destiny was calling but didn’t take hold until much later down the track.

In 2019, Sarah tried bouldering for the first time with a friend and was immediately hooked. However, shortly after discovering her newfound passion in climbing, Sarah suffered a significant setback, breaking her ankle in a fall. While her rehabilitation was long, it was on this journey that Sarah was introduced to rope climbing through Adaptive Climbing Victoria (ACV). She has been embedded in the local adaptive climbing community ever since and became an ACV board member in 2021.

When she’s not climbing walls and competing, Sarah spends her time helping to create opportunities for disabled people in rock climbing, alongside the team at ACV. She’s also a Senior Research Development Manager, with a PhD in Microbiology.

Enriched by the community she inspires and focused on embracing the opportunities and challenges that come her way, Sarah’s goals for 2023 are set on both the competition space and several outdoor projects throughout Australia.

Accomplishments