Sasha DiGiulian is no stranger to any challenge, the first of which was proving people wrong. She has done so her entire life. The 28-year-old took the rock climbing world by storm at an early age and has grown into one of the sport’s most famous faces, traveling the world and completing over thirty first-female ascents. However, she has not been without her controversy or conflict.

Throughout her career, DiGiulian has changed the narrative of what a professional climber is “supposed to look like.” “Climbing as a sport, traditionally, is a White male’s club, and I’ve experienced that in my career. I know that we lack diversity in many ways,” she tells CNN Sport.

“As a woman, success in my career was often reattributed to climbing something with a male being present or doing something and that achievement being negated by my weight, my circumstance, or people making assumptions of my background.”

DiGiulian has spoken out about her experiences of being a woman in the sport and the bullying that goes along with it, writing a lengthy Instagram post in 2018 after she said she was subject to bullying from fellow climber Joe Kinder.

Kinder told CNN that he felt “gravely misrepresented” and said that “public shaming” can cause serious mental health problems. He issued an apology and went on to say how the interaction impacted his life. 

“I’ll never defend my mistake as there is no excuse for my actions. I own it and have learned a hard lesson. It was offensive and hurtful and cost me my career and everything that I had built,” he said in a statement.

DiGiulian says she has been subject to snide comments and remarks for her career choice for years. An interaction she recalled with an alpinist when completing a first female ascent on the 5,900 ft north face of the Eiger (a mountain in Switzerland with one of the most technically challenging climbs in the Alps) continues to invade her thoughts when she doubts herself.

“I won’t say his name, but it comes to the tongue, he said ‘little girls don’t belong on the Eiger’ and just little cuts like that that happen throughout your experiences,” she says. “It doesn’t help, and it doesn’t encourage more people like me to feel comfortable in the sport.”

The Sport’s Wonder Woman

These experiences haven’t hurt her drive for the sport. If anything, it motivated her. With a significant and growing social media following (463,000 followers on Instagram), DiGiulian uses her platform to raise awareness of such issues, becoming a voice for women everywhere trying to break into “Ol boy clubs.”

She’s led all-women climbing teams worldwide, written extensively about being a female in a predominantly male sport, and wants to be a role model for young girls looking to explore the outdoors. She is doing what Wonder Woman did for superheroes, only in real life. 

DiGiulian is particularly passionate about body confidence. This year she took part in an Agent Provocateur advertising campaign where she was filmed climbing in lingerie, describing it as an experience that was “out of my comfort zone.”

The campaign featured three other female athletes and received criticism for the “gratuitous sexualization of” female athletes. DiGiulian says those critics missed the point. “I would say that at the heart of femininity is choice and ownership of your body,” she says.

“All four of us athletes chose to be a part of that campaign because it was an empowering opportunity to really be proud of our sports and of what our bodies look like. I’ve gone through my own bouts with disordered eating and body confidence through excelling at my sport. I get wide shoulders and larger biceps but [I’ve learned] to embrace my body as it is, with the athletic build, because my body provides the tools to be able to excel.”