Erin McNeice first British female to win IFSC title

Erin McNeice adds another title to her growing trophy cabinet

It was a September weekend in the medieval Slovenian city of Koper that Erin McNeice became the first British female to be crowned the overall Lead World Cup Champion for the 2025 season series.

It’s a deserved reward for Depot Climbing athlete Erin, who takes the crown just 12 months after a 5th-place finish at the Paris Olympics, while also competing in the 2025 boulder world cup season, when other athletes took a more relaxed approach to the season, following the huge effort that went into qualifying, and then competing at the Olympic Games. 

It has been a strong season of firsts for Erin McNeice, also taking her first bouldering World Cup Gold in Bern, Switzerland in June, following on from her first lead Gold in Wujiang in April, in her total tally of 3 golds and 3 bronze medals in this year’s World Cup circuits.

Erin has also dominated the domestic circuit in 2025, being crowned both the British boulder and lead champion earlier in the year at both events hosted at BIG Depot Manchester.

We caught up with Erin following her incredible achievement.

How does it feel to be crowned lead World Cup series champion? 

I don’t think it’s completely sunk in yet. It’s crazy how little I’d have believed you if you’d have told me this two years ago or even at the start of this year. To have done it in a year where I was also doing bouldering to a high level makes it feel even better.

Winning my first boulder World Cup and still being able to win the overall in lead feels incredible, because I definitely found it difficult to keep both up to a really high standard.

Being the first British woman to win the lead overall feels pretty indescribable. There have been lots of strong British women that I’ve been inspired by. I only hope that I can be as much of an inspiration to others as they have been to me.

How has the continued competition challenge been for you this season? 

After the Olympics and the rest of the 2024 season, I was really psyched on getting stuck back into training. My coaching team gave me 2 weeks of forced rest, but as soon as that was over I was straight back in the gym.

It’s definitely not the most maintainable decision and it’s not something I’ll do again, especially now feeling the fatigue from the long season, but I don’t regret it. I made the decision to push through and I’m very glad I did.

What are your hopes for the upcoming World Championships?

I’m competing in both Boulder and lead for world champs. It’s a tough schedule if you choose to do both, so I put effort into training capacity so my body can take multiple comp days in a row. I’m feeling pretty good with both disciplines, so I’m hoping to have good performances in both. I don’t really have any results goals at the front of my mind. It’s the last comp of the year and it’s in Seoul which is a place that I really love. I’m just going to enjoy it and try my best.

Have you any other reflections or highlights from this season that aren’t from the wall?

There have definitely been ups and downs this season. Although none of my results have been bad, there have been performances I’ve not been proud of or felt present during. I’ve struggled with feeling like I’ve let myself down if I don’t perform my best.

The worry of that affecting my climbing has forced me to confront it and I think that has made me a better competitor.

I also think I’ve learnt how to channel my confidence more, especially in Bali and Bern. I feel like I went into the final round in the mindset of winning, and it really paid off. 

Winning the Lead World Cup series rounds off this successful World Cup season for Erin McNeice, who secured a combined 2nd place in the boulder & lead overall rankings for 2025.

So what’s next for the fastest rising UK star? Erin will now be setting her sights on the upcoming combined Lead and Boulder World Championships event in Seoul, South Korea, at the end of September, and if you’ve been paying any attention, you’ll know she’s going in to win!

Depot Climbing is an accredited member of the Association of British Climbing Walls.