The 22-year-old headed into sport climbing’s inaugural appearance at the Olympic Games as favourite for the women’s competition, after winning the combined world title in both 2018 and 2019.

This status was reinforced when Garnbret topped qualification for the eight-woman final two days ago.

Two-time speed world champion Aleksandra Miroslaw of Poland unsurprisingly triumphed in the opening discipline of the final, as she had done in qualification.

Miroslaw cruised to the final of the speed event, where she topped the wall in a world record 6.84 to overcome France’s Anouck Jaubert, another specialist.

Garnbret earned a fifth placed finish behind Japan’s Miho Nonaka and Akiyo Noguchi, before heading into her favoured events.

The Slovenian was the only climber to reach the top of any of the bouldering walls, with her mastery of two of the three tasks seeing her win the discipline.

Victory was assured when the two-time lead world champion surpassed her rivals efforts to reach a top hold of 37+ on the climbing wall, with three competitors left with time on the climb.

Garnbret watched as the remaining climbers proved unable to climb higher than her effort.

She finished on a total of five points after the scores from three events were multiplied.

"I'm so happy that I can't even describe it, it’s like a dream coming true," Garnbret said after winning gold.

"I wrote on Instagram probably six or more years ago, I wrote, ‘See you in Tokyo!’ so it's a dream come true.

"I felt a lot of pressure. I put a lot of pressure on myself, and I felt like from the whole world that there's pressure on me.

"It was definitely very hard, so I kind of imagined that I'm in Innsbruck in a World Cup, and this is just like training for Olympics."

Garnbret’s success gave Slovenia their record third gold medal of the Games, following triumphs in the men’s cycling time trial and canoe slalom.

Hosts Japan celebrated silver and bronze medals in the event, with Nonaka and Noguchi’s consistency rewarded with podium places.

Nonaka recorded third placed finishes in speed and bouldering, with a fifth in the lead event combining for a total of 45 points.

Her compatriot Noguchi placed fourth in all three disciplines to finish on 64 points for bronze.

Miroslaw also finished on 64 points, but missed out on bronze after finishing below Noguchi in two of the three events.