The sport of obstacle racing involves running and overcoming impediments such as walls or barbed wire, or jumping through fire. Competitors are sometimes required to race in near-freezing temperatures, reports The Times.
Yet even in a sport of extremes, Anouk Garnier has gone further than anyone else. The champion racer has set new world record for climbing a free-hanging rope by scaling a 110-metres to the second level of the Eiffel tower.
At times, she paused for breath as she pulled herself up, visibly straining to continue as spectators standing underneath the tower cheered her on. “I trained for this event for a year,” the fitness coach, 35, said. “My mother has cancer and it was important for me to surpass my limits for a good cause close to my heart, to help cancer research.”
The Eiffel Tower has always been “a place of bold exploits”, according to Jean-François Martins, chairman of the company that manages the monument. “We’re always happy to welcome people who want to take up challenges that are out of the ordinary, a bit crazy, you might say.”