Paris 2024 sport climbing: Triumphant Toby Roberts wins gold as teens reign supreme in first-ever Olympic men’s Boulder & Lead final

Cupping the back of his head with his tired, chalk-encrusted hands, disbelief washed over Toby Roberts’ face.

Not even the 6,000 fans at Le Bourget on their feet and cheering, it seemed, could quite convince the 19-year-old Briton that on a Parisian summer’s day, he had become the men’s sport Boulder & Lead combined sport climbing Olympic gold medallist.

And yet, that was precisely what had happened.

In a field featuring some of the biggest stars in the sport, including Czech superstar Adam Ondra and Jakob Schubert, Roberts was the one who had produced the complete package.

Sitting third (63.1) after the morning’s cut-throat Boulder section, the Surrey-born climber found himself well placed heading into the Lead route.

Going second-to-last, Roberts navigated the 15m-tall wall, twisting and contorting his lithe frame to earn a 92.1 score in Lead and create a combined total of 155.2. It gave the Briton the provisional lead.

With one hand at least on the silver, the onus fell on the last climber of the final, Japanese 17-year-old wunderkind Anraku Sorata, who needed at least an 86.0 score to surpass the Roberts.

Up and up and up Ankaru went. The tension as the pre-event favourite grappled ever closer to his intended destination - the fourth hold from the top - was palpable. But at the moment it mattered most the Japanese fell and with him his chances of taking the win.

It was gold for Roberts and Great Britain’s first-ever sport climbing Olympic title.

• Find out more about Toby Roberts' inspiring rocket rise to the top

Toby Roberts: ‘Fighting hard’ for gold

Roberts, with the gold medal and fragment of Eiffel Tower iron now around his neck, would be the first to admit that this exact moment has been a long time in the making.

It was six years ago, just before sport climbing was added to the Olympic programme, that the Briton and his father-coach Tristan Roberts first concocted the strategy to get the climber to the summit of his sport.

After showing an insatiable appetite for climbing after stumbling on the sport by chance at eight years old on an afterschool event list, Roberts’ father, Tristan Roberts, knew straight away that his son’s talent was one that had to be nurtured.

“It’s not normal with how addicted he is,” Tristan Roberts recalled once thinking in an interview with Olympics.com about his son a year ago.

But without any background in sport climbing, the family didn’t know what steps to take. It was then Tristan Roberts decided to throw himself into the frame, immersing himself in technique, history and culture to try to help coach his son to the big time. As Roberts grew into an athlete, so too did his father as a coach.

Though it might sound experimental, risky even, Roberts’ performance today speaks to the tenacity behind their combined triumph. And it was with that quality - tenacity - that Roberts in the final was able to find his edge.

One moment in particular stands out. Struggling for what he described after as a “really good flow” during the challenging Boulder round, it was on the third problem the Briton came alive.

Easily the most mind-bending of all the problems presented before the crowd, the third round of Boulder had the climbers navigate an overhang, testing strength and guile as well as just simply energy reserves.

Hamish McArthur, Roberts’ Team GB colleague, after getting achingly close to the final hold, fell on to his back. There he stayed for more than half a minute looking up at the sky, exhausted that his colossal effort had been denied.

Three climbers all registered no points on the problem such was its difficulty.

But not Roberts. Where it dared, he accepted.

“The third one was just my kind of boat,” Roberts reflected after what he conceded was a “really hard” Boulder section. “It really was just fighting hard and having to give everything to find the top.

“I’m happy to have put in some good fights.”

Plenty of pints on the way

It speaks to the prodigious talent of Anraku that Robert’s victory over the Japanese is being gestured at with a hint of surprise.

The teen from Tokyo, though just in his second year of World Cup, has been industrious and successful in equal measure since his arrival on the senior circuit.

Coming into the Games with five Lead World Cup wins and eight medals from his time on tour, inevitably certain expectations began to attach themselves to the teenager.

They weren’t without justification as Anraku demonstrated; qualifying top for the final and then taking the lead after the Boulder section. In the end, however, the Japanese climber admitted that he had not fully prepared for what the final Lead route would ask of him.

“The middle part was clumsy,” he said after. “Other climbers used their arms and the core of their bodies well to control the situation when they could not use their legs. I didn’t train that, but spent time training how to maximise my style. I found my weak point today.

“I was disappointed," he continued, “but I’m happy I’ve found the next challenge.”

It’s an ominous message. And while it might have been silver for the ambitious Anraku, there was an overwhelming feeling in the air that with the two teens on top, today the men’s sport climbing guard had officially begun to change.

Though not completely with Austria’s Schubert, 33, claiming a second bronze at Le Bourget, undeniably a shift is underway. It presents an exciting future for the still relatively fresh Olympic discipline.

Roberts’ and Anraku’s youth, such an advantage during the final with their dynamism and coordinative moves, became most obvious in the press conference when asked if they intended to commemorate their achievements.

“There will definitely be celebrating,” Roberts said definitively.

How? The question was put back to him.

“I’ve only ever had one pint before so that might change.”