François Legrand (climber)

Climbing career

Son of a mountain guide, he spent a lot of time in the mountains since he was a boy. His parents wanted him to become a mountain guide, rather than a rock climber. However, in 1988, aged 18, he ran away and moved for some months into a cave in Buoux. In the same year, he began competing at a national level. In 1990, he moved to Aix-en-Provence, where he rented an apartment with his friend Yuji Hirayama.

In 1990, aged 20, he won his first Lead Climbing World Cups. During his career in competition climbing, which ended in 2003, Legrand won five Lead Climbing World Cups (1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1997), three consecutive Lead Climbing World Championships (1991, 1993, 1995) and four Rock Masters. As of 2022, no other climber was ever able to match this achievement. The second-ranking for the number of awarded Lead Climbing World Cups is Alexandre Chabot, who won three consecutive times (2001, 2002, 2003).

Since 2009, he is the coach for the French national youth team together with Rémi Samyn.