18-year-old GB Climbing athlete Toby Roberts won the IFSC European Qualifier event in Laval, France, earning him an Olympic quota place for the Boulder & Lead event in Sport Climbing at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. He finished ahead of Tokyo 2020 Olympic champion Alberto Ginés-López (ESP) and Sam Avezou (FRA).

Toby showed strong performances across the rounds, qualifying for the semi-final in second place behind Adam Ondra (CZE). He then dominated the semis, recording the highest scores in both the Boulder and Lead rounds to qualify on top of the field for the final.

In the final, Toby scored 69.8 points and placed second in a close Boulder round, 15 points behind Sam Avezou and just above Ginés-López and Ondra. He secured the overall win on the Lead route at the 60-point mark and continued further to achieve the only Top, under the added pressure of being the last athlete to climb.

The 18-year-old from Surrey won his first IFSC World Cups in both Boulder and Lead this year, becoming the first British athlete to win a gold medal in both disciplines and one of few athletes ever to do so. 

Toby had narrowly missed out on an Olympic quota place at the IFSC World Championships in Bern, Switzerland this August, finishing fifth and just outside of the Olympic-qualifying podium places.

He is the second British athlete in Sport Climbing to earn an Olympic spot after Shauna Coxsey competed in the sport's debut Games in Tokyo 2020 and finished 10th.

Speaking to Shauna - who was co-commentating the event - on the IFSC livestream, Toby said: 

"I'm truly, truly lost for words. I don't think this is ever going to sink in. Coming into this competition, I tried to come in with no expectations and just enjoy the climbing and yeah, I just have no words...it's not quite gone in yet that I just qualified for the Olympics. It's just such a big dream for me. I've been training for so long for this and it just means so much."

When asked by Shauna about his approach to this event following disappointment in Bern, Toby responded:

"I'm so happy having come so close in Bern. I think in Bern I really let the pressure get to me more. Going away from Bern, the aim was to work on my weaknesses coming into this competition and then just go in with a clear head and just truly enjoy the climbing because that's why I do it. And I was able to come in and just enjoy every boulder and every route I tried. And that's when the best results come."

Just after Toby had secured the win on the 60-point hold, he interacted with the crowd as their cheers confirmed his win. Not content to stop having done enough, he continued. The following section involved a spectacular dyno to the last hold, which he calmly executed before excitedly celebrating his win and Olympic ticket. Reflecting on the climb, he commented:

"The route was incredible. I've always said that my favorite place to be is like fighting hard on a head wall. And it doesn't get much better than that, like really just having to pull...some of those blue holds aren't that great. Really fighting on those felt really good and that last jump was just the cherry on top really."

Toby thanked his family, including his father Tristian, who travels with him to training and competitions and was seen congratulating his son on the livestream following his climb. He said:

"My dad and my family are just such a huge part of the process. I'm so thankful for the support that he gives me. He's always here at the competitions, always there to kind of just debrief me and cheer me up when it's not gone so well. So yeah, I'm hugely thankful to my parents and my dad."

In the women's event, Oriane Bertone (FRA) won on home turf in a decisive victory ahead of Staša Gejo (SRB) and Laura Rogora (ITA). 

Full report of the men's and women' finals to follow.

Boulder&lead Men