Meet Team GB new hero Toby Roberts who won gold at Paris 2024 and honed his skills on a climbing wall built by his dad
TEAM GB’s latest gold medal hero is 19-year-old climbing star Toby Roberts.
The teenager from Surrey was third after the bouldering stage of the final.
But his incredible effort in the lead element saw him clinch gold – as the heavy favourite slipped just seconds from glory.
Speaking to BBC Sport after the event, Roberts said: “I am just lost for words. To find out that I had got the gold in that moment was truly incredible.
“I have been training for this moment my whole life. To say it hasn’t sunk in is an understatement.
“I imagine later it will be a flood of emotions. It is a goal I have been training towards for like 10 years.”
However, during lockdown Roberts was forced to take a year out of competitions and had to improvise when it came to training.
That’s when dad Tristian stepped up to the plate and built a huge climbing wall in the garden of their home for his son.
The move earned Roberts the nickname ‘The Terminator’ because of his steely determination to succeed, although he admitted: “It’s not a self-given nickname, Maybe because my climbing style is quite like The Terminator. I’m not sure how I feel about it.”
Tristian, who is Roberts’ coach but only learned about the sport from watching TV, revealed to the Radio Times: “During lockdown, Toby had to take a year out from competitions, so we built a climbing wall in our garden that measures 3.6 square metres and has varying angles on it – 40, 50 and 60 degrees.
“It’s useful as a base level of conditioning, strength and power and it helped him to build up his physicality.”
A natural height scaler
Even as a baby Roberts was a natural climber.
Tristian and his mum Marina would often check on him in his room at bedtime only to find their infant son climbing the cot rail.
He soon graduated to scaling stair gates, much to the infuriation and disbelief of his parents.
When he was around four, he worked his way up a climbing wall in an activity centre during a holiday.
Tristian recalled: “He got to the top and the guy running it said: ‘He’s the youngest person who’s ever got up there.'”
Aged eight, Roberts joined an after-school climbing club and was soon hooked.
That led to him becoming the youngest-ever Brit to climb the 8a Raindogs route at Malham Cove at just 10 years old.
Tristian said: “He was very obsessive and wouldn’t let things drop. Whatever sport he did, he was really good at it.
“He was incredibly determined – we’d go up to his room after we’d put him to bed and he’d be doing a plank. We’d be like: “You’ve got to stop training now. You’ve got school tomorrow.”
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In 2016, it was announced that climbing would make its Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020.
That stirred Roberts, who was just 12 at that point, to make an eight-year plan to target Paris 2024.
Rapid rise
Roberts has enjoyed an incredible rise in senior level, after scooping plenty of accolades as a junior.
After lockdown, he temporarily moved to Austria to train in world class facilities.
It was a sacrifice that made the difference. In 2022, he announced himself at the Lead World Cup in Edinburgh placing third.
“Getting my first World Cup medal in a home event got me so psyched to train for the next season,” he told The Guardian.
Then in 2023, he enjoyed a breakout year when he won gold at a Boulder World Cup in Italy, snatched with his last attempt in the final seconds.
He said: “It was a fairytale ending.
“All those years of training suddenly became worth it. It still gets my heart pumping.”
What's happening today at The Games?
WHAT TO WATCH TODAY
TODAY’S BRIT MEDAL HOPES
Katarina Johnson-Thompson will go for her first Olympic medal as the heptathlon concludes with the 800m (7.25pm).
Toby Roberts has a great chance of a podium finish in the men’s boulder and lead sport climbing final (9.15am).
Jack Carlin could grab a medal in the men’s sprint in the velodrome, too (5pm).
BRITS TO WATCH
Kate Shortman and Izzy Thorpe go in the artistic swimming, starting with their duet technical routine (6.30pm).
An early start for 10km marathon swimmers Tobias Patrick Robinson and Hector Pardoe (6.30am).
Amber Anning is in the women’s 400m final on the track (7pm) while Yasmin Harper and Grace Reid go in the 3m springboard diving final (2pm).
GLOBAL STARS TODAY
There is a blockbuster men’s football final as Spain take on Thierry Henry’s France at PSG’s Parc des Princes (5pm).
The 4x100m relay finals will be stacked full of the best sprinters in the world – including Americans Sha’carri Richardson and Christian Coleman (6.30pm).
Imane Khelif goes for boxing gold in the 66kg final against Yang Liu of China (9.50pm).
FANCY SOMETHING DIFFERENT?
The modern pentathlon is the very definition of something different with a superb, eclectic and chaotic collection of event.
The activities include show jumping, fencing, a 200m swim and a laser run, where athletes combine a run with shooting.
STATS MAD
2/54 – The Dutch women’s hockey team have lost just two of their last 54 matches stretching back to December 2022 and are in a sixth straight Olympic final. Can China cause a major shock and deny the Netherlands a fifth gold? Find out at 7pm.
Follow all the action as it unfolds with our Paris 2024 Olympics LIVE blog.
A few weeks later, he won gold again at a Lead World Cup in France.
To psyche himself up before he competes, Roberts puts on Eminem’s Lose Yourself on an MP3 player while he waits in the ‘isolation’ zone.
The icing on the cake
It’s all led to this – Olympic gold at Paris 2024.
Afterwards, Roberts said: “Well, I imagine I won’t be sleeping. I’ll get very, very drunk.
“I’m in shock. To find out you’ve won an Olympic gold is just, it’s definitely going to be a lot of shock there.
“Going into the competition, I tried to remove all expectations and then, yeah, to realise that I’d won the gold, it’s just a rush of adrenaline and emotion and happiness.”
He added: “I’ve been working towards this for ten years. Me and my dad, we created a plan to get to the stage and it’s been a journey.”
Have a beer on us, Toby.