Oriane Bertone (FRA) and Toby Roberts (GBR) earned the next Olympic quota places in Boulder & Lead for the Paris 2024 Games at the IFSC European Qualifier Event in Laval, France this weekend. 

Women's Final

The women's competition was led by 18-year-old Oriane Bertone (FRA), a popular favourite competing on home turf. She won the qualification and semi-final rounds, appearing at ease on the wall and topping all but one Boulder across the rounds. 

In the final, a varied round of Boulders - many with heartbreaker finishing moves - resulted in a diverse spread of Tops. An awkward high battle with a blob separated the field early on Boulder 1, before a heinous heart-in-mouth slab with a precarious deadpoint to a screw-on finish hold on Boulder 2 tested the athletes. Boulder 3 was slightly undercooked, receiving eight Tops and mostly flashes, while Boulder 4 involved powerful coordination moves. Oriane scored 99.9, just one attempt away from a perfect score. Staša Gejo (SRB) gained valuable points with three Tops and four Zones, scoring 84.5 points. Jenya Kazbekova (UKR) earned two Tops and four Zones, ranking third on 69.6 points.

A high-scoring Boulder round put pressure on those who had points to make up in Lead. Laura Rogora (ITA) set an early highpoint of 96.1, falling one hold short of the Top, maintaining her lead until Staša Gejo overtook her by just one hold (and just ~3 points) with an impressive fight assisted by her higher Boulder score. Gejo faced an anxious wait as Oriane Bertone - who only had to reach hold number 28 to win - made her way up. Bertone appeared calm and quickly progressed up the leaderboard due to her 99.9 Boulder points. As soon as she hit hold 28 and her score surpassed Gejo's, the crowd erupted into cheers. Bertone turned around to double-check the scoreboard and kept fighting, eventually reaching 72 points and scoring 171.9/200. 

Bertone told the IFSC:

"I was trying to pay attention to the crowd's reaction whenever I was grabbing a new hold. I was thinking 'Is it this one? No.' 'Is it the next one? No.' And when I took the right, one I heard everybody go crazy, I turned my head so that I could see the screen and saw my name up there. I don't even know what to say, I'm crazy happy.

"I am very happy with the consistency that I have displayed throughout the whole event: I was first in qualification, first in semi-final, and first in final, and that is not an easy thing to do. I was especially very happy with my bouldering, I'm not very satisfied about my Lead climb because I was pretty stressed."

In the list of climbers that have qualified for the Paris Olympics, Bertone joins teammate Bassa Mawem, who claimed a spot in the men's Speed event at the previous European Qualifier in Rome, Italy.

Men's Final

In the men's event, Toby Roberts (GBR) qualified for the semi-final in second place behind Adam Ondra (CZE) and then dominated the semis, recording the highest scores in both the Boulder and Lead rounds. Ondra and reigning Olympic champion Alberto Ginés-López (ESP) were just behind Roberts going into the final round. Boulder 1, a compression boulder on crimps, was topped by Sam Avezou (FRA) alone. Boulder 2, a technical slab, was topped by Schalck, Avezou, Ginés-López, Ondra and Roberts. M3, a dynamic coordination boulder, was pitched too easy, receiving Tops from all eight athletes. The final Boulder involved a difficult paddle dyno and proved untoppable.

With Sam Avezou ahead by around 15 points going into the Lead round, he appeared to be a strong contender to take the win given his route-climbing capabilities. However, with Roberts, Ginés-López and Ondra closely ranked between 69.8 and 68.9 points, the competition remained open. Yannick Flohé (GER) put in a strong performance despite losing his glasses partway up the wall, reaching 76.1 points. Sam Avezou failed to find his usual Lead form, falling at 48.1 and letting go of his 15-point advantage.

Reigning Olympic champion Ginés-López resembled his 2021 self after difficult 2022 and 2023 seasons as he climbed high until 64 points, putting him in provisional first place. He faced a nervous wait as Ondra and Roberts were yet to climb. Ondra climbed smoothly and matched Ginés-López's score, which wasn't enough to unseat the Spaniard. Roberts looked relaxed as he faced the added pressure of being the last man out to climb. He climbed slowly up to the 60-point hold, which secured him the win. He interacted with the crowd as their cheers confirmed his victory. Not content to stop having done enough, he continued. The following section involved a spectacular swinging dyno - a very similar kind of move that had caused his downfall in Bern - 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 favourite place to be is 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."

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.

Boulder&lead Men

Boulder&lead Women