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As Toby Roberts was confirmed as the Olympic champion in sport climbing, tears started to tumble down his father and coach Tristan’s cheeks. Nearby, Roberts’s three siblings – sisters Katie and Emma and brother James – and mother Marina looked on in a state of delirious shock.
They are a tight-knit family, but none of them can really relate to their brother calmly scaling the 15-metre wall in Le Bourget to snatch an unlikely gold medal. In fact, it terrifies them. “We all hate heights,” James tells Telegraph Sport, soon after Roberts is presented with his gold medal.
“It’s true, we’re all scared of heights and he’s climbing up this rock face,” Marina adds. “He’s always wanted to climb outside. I know he’s safe because he’s on a rope, but still. It’s a moment where you always feel like, ‘gosh, he’s got no fear’.
“It’s absolutely mad, utter madness what he’s done. Toby is unbelievable, but in climbing anything can happen. It was just a crazy moment to see him win, we were all on the edge of our seats, heart in mouth.”
Setting records by 10 years old
Surrey-born Roberts is still only 19, becoming one of just 16 teenagers to win gold for Great Britain. While he was not the favourite in the men’s lead and boulder combined event, he has always been something of a prodigal talent.
He only took up climbing aged seven at an after-school introductory session, but describes having a “natural urge to climb” trees and even out of his cot when he was a baby.
He was immediately hooked by the sport, and by the age of 10 he was setting records, as the youngest Brit to climb the 8a Raindogs route at Malham Cove in North Yorkshire. Later, he ticked other challenging outdoor routes off his list and set his sights on competitive climbing. In 2022, at 17, he became the first British climber in 28 years to win a World Cup medal in the lead discipline.
Roberts blushes slightly when asked about his fellow competitors nicknaming him “The Terminator”, owing to his steely style of climbing. “It’s not a self-given nickname,” he says with a smile. “I’m not sure how I feel about it.”
With the adrenaline pumping, he is a fierce competitor. Heading out as the penultimate climber in the lead section of the competition on Friday, Roberts was in “isolation” waiting for his turn. Competitors are not allowed phones, so he had an MP3 player and blasted Lose Yourself by Eminem to “pump” himself up.
‘Toby’s always been a bit of an outlier’
All of his family members describe him as remarkably “self-driven” since childhood. Roberts eschewed the well-trodden path of joining a club like most serious young climbers, and opted for a more individual approach, with his dad on hand to help at every turn as his coach.
As father Tristan had never climbed before, he threw himself into learning everything he could about the sport, and he and his son figured it out together, travelling the world to competitions. They describe the path to Paris as a “six-year strategy” – before climbing was actually confirmed as an Olympic sport for Tokyo 2020.
“Toby’s always been a bit of an outlier, so he’s never been part of a club or team,” his mother Marina says. “He’s really determined in everything he does. He challenges himself, that’s just it. He picks things off, he’s never satisfied.”
“He’s found his own path,” Tristan adds later. “We’ve learned as we’ve gone. Maybe the infrastructure wasn’t there [at first], and hopefully it’s been developing the whole time, but what we always thought is that he’s this age now – you don’t have time to wait for everything to come together. I think that’s one of the defining things over the years. If there’s a choice we can make as a family to make sure that happens, then that’s what we’ve done.
“This is a lot of years of work, but the hard work comes from him – the training to make him the most incredible athlete. Since he decided this was what he wanted to do, when he was 10, he’s just put in everything every single day. Not once have I ever had to tell him to try harder. The motivation and drive comes from within. That’s for 10 years. I think that’s why he’s one of the youngest. He’s been so professional about it.”
That infrastructure may well come, as a gold medal will hopefully boost funding for young British climbers.
Away from the wall, Roberts is a Red Bull athlete and YouTuber. He is just as at home sharing his climbing feats as he is his beauty routine. Keeping the skin on your hands and fingers in good shape is key for climbers, and his favourite products are Elizabeth Arden.
No doubt his 48,000 subscriber count will sky-rocket after his exploits in Paris. In ultimate Gen-Z fashion, with the gold medal safely around his neck, Roberts last words to the gaggle of journalists at Le Bourget were, “I’m psyched to create some content.”
