Anak Verhoeven

Anak Verhoeven, born on 15 July 1996, is a Belgian rock climber who works mainly in sport climbing and in competition lead climbing. She won the Belgian national lead climbing title several times, finished 2016 ranked first on the IFSC World Ranking List, and in 2017 won both the World Games and the IFSC Climbing European Championships. She also took the World Youth Championship in 2015 and the junior European title in 2014. In September 2017 she made the first free ascent of Sang Neuf, a 9a route in France, and then of Sweet Neuf, which she proposed as 9a+ and which a repeat by Cedric Lachat confirmed in 2019, making her the first woman to establish a route at that grade. A serious elbow injury kept her out of competition from late 2017 until 2019, and in June 2021 she retired from competition to concentrate on outdoor projects. In 2024 she became the fourth woman to redpoint a 9b route, La Planta de Shiva in Spain.