With Toby Roberts among the top gold-seekers, Team GB was the only country with two competitors vying for medals in the boulder and lead final.
The first-ever climbing medal for Great Britain belongs to Toby Roberts, who won gold in the Olympic bouldering and lead climbing competition.
Following the bouldering portion of the competition in Paris, Roberts came in third place, trailing only Sorato Anraku of Japan, who took the lead with 69.3 points, ahead of Colin Duffy of the USA. After the event, Hamish MacArthur of GB was in fourth place.
Roberts secured the gold medal with a lead score of 92.1 points, outscoring Anraku with only 155.2 points remaining to climb. Before he could complete the necessary count, the Japanese athlete collapsed, giving Roberts the victory.
After his rival was unable to gain the leverage he desired, the 19-year-old from Surrey had a delayed realization and could hardly believe he had won. At the age of just 17, Anraku was the clear favorite going into the competition and beat Roberts in the semi-finals with the best score.
Even so, the teenager took home the silver medal with 145.4 points, while Austria’s Jakob Schubert took home the bronze medal with 139.6. Prior to Roberts’ ascent, British climber MacArthur was seated among the medals; he ultimately placed fifth in the competition with 125.9 points.
“After the event, I’m at a loss for words,” Roberts exclaimed. “To find out I got the gold in that moment was truly incredibly.”
“I’ve been training for this moment my whole life,” he stated. “It would be an understatement to say that it hasn’t clicked. I’ve been preparing for this goal for the past ten years. I can’t believe it.”
Roberts’s effort sees the realization of a plan conceived of at the age of twelve, to make Paris 2024. Speaking last year, the climber disclosed that his family came up with the plan as soon as it was revealed the sport would be included in the 2020 Olympics.
“It was announced that climbing would be included in the 2020 Olympics when I was around 12 years old,” he stated. At that point, my family and I made the decision that I would try my hardest to earn a spot in Paris 2024. We made a six-year plan, and in order to get to where I am now, I had to reach certain milestones.
“In order to compete in the European and World Championships and gain some experience before this qualifying event, I had to meet a certain age requirement to be on the Great Britain squad. There wasn’t much room for error; if I had missed one of the deadlines, someone else might have seized the chance.”
With this gold, GB now has 14 medals in Paris and 52 overall. In the overall standings, the country is fifth behind the hosts, France. China matched the United States in first place but only managed 74 medals overall, trailing behind them with 30 golds and 103 medals overall. Australia has 18 gold medals and is currently ranked third.
