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.”