![\"ogawa_career2016_1\"](\"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/assets\/uploads\/2016\/05\/20160114_121535-610x405.jpg\")
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My dream was to become an astronaut. I wanted to feel closer to space, so I climbed Mount Fuji when I was in junior high school, which blew me away. This experience led me to major in applied physics and join the wandervogel (mountaineering) club at Waseda. Then, my life took a 180-degree turn as I started rock climbing for training. I was asked to participate in a national competition, and after training for half a year, I came second place. This was how I got into rock climbing.<\/p>\n
As graduation approached, I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to continue competing or go on to graduate school. Eventually, I decided to pursue climbing. I created my own PR materials and looked for sponsors, but I didn’t have anyone supporting me at the time when I graduated. Not being able to see the future ahead, I became frustrated from time to time. On the other hand, there was a part of me telling myself that everything is going to be alright. After graduation, I continued to compete and look for sponsors while working numerous part-time jobs. A year had passed when I found my first sponsor. I chose to realize my dream instead of living a comfortable life. There’s no right answer, but I believe to make decisions based on your own values.<\/p>\n
I focused on bouldering, which is like free climbing but without any ropes. In 2012, I became the first woman in the world to climb V14 (8B+ according to the Fontainebleau technical grades). It took 700 trials over the course of 3 years. I think I continued this almost impossible challenge because I had learned to take small steps in order to achieve big goals. You shouldn’t think about going 10cm forward but focus on where to place your fingers on a millimeter level and move even just a little ahead from where you were yesterday. This is not only true for sports. Doing anything requires diligence. As the saying goes, \u201ca penny saved is a penny earned.\u201d I hope anyone who is working hard towards their goals will believe in themselves and continue to endure for a reward at the end.<\/p>\n
I was the only woman in my class year on the wandervogel team, but that didn’t mean anything. I had to work as hard as the guys, which helped me become tougher both physically and mentally. I even went on a cycling tour in Canada alone. I think a path leading to where I stand today and perseverance comes from there.<\/p>\n
![\"ogawa_career2016_2\"](\"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/assets\/uploads\/2016\/05\/ogawa_career2016_2.jpg\")
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Aside from competing professionally, I currently give speeches and lectures where I talk about my background about how I became a professional climber instead of an astronaut after graduating from Waseda. I think of my experiences as a strength, making who I am today. Right now, I dream of climbing together with my two-year old son someday.<\/p>\n
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Tomoko Ogawa
\nProfessional rock climber
\nSchool of Science and Engineering, Class of 2003<\/p>\n
Pick Up<\/strong> \u203bThe article is based on an interview conducted in 2015.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Interview with alumna Tomoko Ogawa From an aspiring astronaut to the first woman to climb V14 My dream was to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":41139,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[81],"tags":[45,174,342],"class_list":["post-41552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-alumni-en","tag-sports-en","tag-voice-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/top\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nAt Waseda, there are almost 570 approved clubs on campus, ranging from the humanities to sports. The wandervogel club, which Ogawa was on, is approved by the University.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n