# Akiyo Noguchi

Akiyo Noguchi (野口 啓代, Noguchi Akiyo, born May 30, 1989) is a Japanese professional rock climber who specializes in competition bouldering as well as outdoor bouldering and sport climbing.
She participates in both competition bouldering and competition lead climbing disciplines. She is known for winning the IFSC Climbing World Cup in Bouldering four times. In her home country, she won Bouldering Japan Cup nine times consecutively from 2005 to 2014, which no other Japanese athlete has been able to match. She retired from competition climbing after competing and winning a bronze medal in the 2020 Summer Olympics.

## Early life

Noguchi grew up on a cattle farm in the Ibaraki Prefecture. From a young age she would climb on buildings, trees and sometimes even on the cows. In 2000, when she was 11 years old, she tried a real climbing wall for the first time, during a holiday trip to Guam. Back at home she immediately joined a local climbing gym. Her father later built her a climbing wall in an old cattle barn on the farm.

## Competition climbing

In 2007, she started competing in the Bouldering World Cups, reaching the podium three times. In 2009, she won the World Cup in bouldering, over the previous year's champion Anna Stöhr. Noguchi repeated as champion in 2010, 2014 and 2015. In the 2011, 2012 and 2013 bouldering events at the World Cup she placed second. She has also won the combined climbing title at the World Cup three times.
Noguchi was also awarded the La Sportiva Competition Award in 2010, "for her victories and the positive spirit she exudes during competitions".
In 2019 Akiyo Noguchi won a silver medal in the combined competition at the climbing World Championship which qualified her for the 2020 Summer Olympics. Noguchi had contemplated retirement from competition climbing as early as 2016, but when it was announced that climbing would become an Olympic sport in 2020 for the first time she decided to try and qualify for Olympics in her home country. Noguchi attended her final IFSC Climbing World Cup in Innsbruck in June 2021, finishing a career of 169 World Cups and World Championships and 75 podium places. On July 13, 2021, she published an autobiography.
She finished her climbing career with a bronze medal at the 2020 Summer Olympics.

## Personal life

On December 25, 2021, Noguchi and fellow Japanese sport climber Tomoa Narasaki announced their marriage on their respective social media pages.

## Rankings
### World Cup

| | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2021 |
| Lead | 42 | 21 | 24 | 5 | 11 | 8 | 20 | 13 | 7 | 10 | 30 | 17 | 15 | 8 | 9 | 22 |
| Bouldering | - | - | 6 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 9 |
| Combined | - | - | 5 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 2 | 2 | - |

### World Championships

| | 2005 | 2007 | 2009 | 2011 | 2012 | 2014 | 2016 | 2018 | 2019 |
| Lead | 3 | 11 | 8 | - | - | 9 | - | 8 | 5 |
| Bouldering | 21 | 2 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 |
| Speed | - | - | 31 | - | - | - | - | 47 | 34 |
| Combined | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 4 | 2 |

## World Cup podiums
### Lead

| Season | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
| 2008 | | | 1 | 1 |
| 2009 | | 1 | | 1 |
| 2010 | | | 2 | 2 |
| 2011 | | | | 0 |
| 2012 | | | | 0 |
| 2013 | | 1 | | 1 |
| 2014 | | | 1 | 1 |
| 2015 | | | | 0 |
| 2016 | | 1 | | 1 |
| 2017 | | | | 0 |
| 2018 | | | 1 | 1 |
| 2019 | | 1 | | 1 |
| 2021 | | | 1 | 1 |
| Total | 0 | 4 | 6 | 10 |

### Bouldering

| Season | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
| 2007 | | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| 2008 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| 2009 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 5 |
| 2010 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| 2011 | 4 | 1 | | 5 |
| 2012 | 3 | | | 3 |
| 2013 | | 3 | 2 | 5 |
| 2014 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 7 |
| 2015 | 1 | 3 | | 4 |
| 2016 | | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| 2017 | | 2 | 3 | 5 |
| 2018 | 3 | | 4 | 7 |
| 2019 | | 4 | | 4 |
| Total | 21 | 20 | 17 | 58 |

## Rock climbing
### Redpointed routes

8c+ (5.14c):
   * Mind Control - Oliana (SPN) - December 10, 2013
8b (5.13d):
   * Liquid Finger - Joyama (JPN) - December 12, 2008

### Boulder problems

8A+ (V12):
* Aguni - Mizugaki (JPN) - November 2014.
* A Maze of Death - Bishop (CAL) - 2016.
* Euro Trash - Little Cottonwood Canyon (UT) - May 2022.
8A (V11):
* Monsterman SD - Jyougasaki (JPN) - February 2010.
* Evilution Direct - Bishop (CAL) - 2016.