Joanna Pultro

Rock Climber & Olympic Lifter

Joanna Pultro stepped onto the national Olympic lifting platform having already missed her second attempt at a power clean. She’d sent several multi-pitch rock climbs and split boarded in backcountry avalanche terrain just months earlier, but standing on that platform was her scariest moment of the year.

You might think this is a story of triumph in the moment, but it’s not – Joanna failed on her third attempt, too. After a year’s worth of hard work, she didn’t deliver the results she wanted. She finished the competition but as a natural-born competitor took the L hard.

Now’s where the story turns around. Just two weeks later, Joanna made that same lift in a separate competition, proving the doubters in her own head wrong. “Bravery to me is about finding that thing you didn’t think you could achieve and overcoming it,” she says. “Then you can see it in the rear view and look ahead to the next challenge.”

Joanna’s next challenges are many, and she revels in the opportunity to do things that, as she puts it, make her “a little or a lot nauseous.” Finding Scottish heavy athletics was one of those things. Joanna wasn’t sure she’d be into the sport, but she quickly fell in love with it after discovering the culture and atmosphere that’s so prevalent at competitions.

Joanna purchased her first Sport Kilt out of necessity – a strongman event she entered required athletes to wear kilts. Through wearing her Sport Kilt and diving deeper into the world of Highland games, Joanna has found a new community she wouldn’t have otherwise, and is motivated to extend companionship and inclusivity to others.

As for Joanna’s next challenge? “I want to snowboard in my Sport Kilt this season, weather permitting.”