Toby Roberts exclusive: Britain's first Olympic champion learning to handle pressure of gold after 'wild year' ahead of Climbing World Championships

Toby Roberts sits down for an exclusive interview with TNT Sports, as the Olympic champion eyes glory in Seoul in late September. Britain's first Olympic climbing king claimed the top spot in Paris last summer - and as a teenager - with the world title the next on his list of ambitions. The Climbing World Championships are live on TNT Sports and discovery+.

Britain's first Olympic climbing champion Toby Roberts believes he is through the toughest part of his post-Paris blues as he trains his sights on World Championships glory in South Korea this month.

The 20-year-old claimed gold in the men's combined event last summer in the French capital, which included both lead and bouldering, but handling that success has proved a rocky terrain.

Roberts recently finished third at the World Cup in Koper, Slovenia's main coastal city - a result he views as a step in the right direction following a challenging campaign.

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Being back on the podium having faced a stacked field is ideal preparation for the test that now lies ahead, and the Brit is currently in Innsbruck, where he claimed another title to his already-impressive resume in late June, winning the men’s boulder event at the IFSC Sport Climbing World Cup.

That triumph came only a fortnight after Roberts had taken to social media to open up about the mental difficulties in coping with the added pressure of being the reigning Olympic champion.

But being in the limelight is nothing new for the young man from Elstead, Surrey, who became the first Brit in 28 years to win a lead World Cup medal at just 17 years old.

Taking a break from his training in Austria, Roberts exclusively told TNT Sports that he is now a far better climber than the teenager who won Olympic gold a little over 12 months ago.

"I look back at that performance in Paris and there were still elements which I'm now potentially even better at than I was then," admits Roberts, who is a Red Bull athlete. "I'd say that I'm stronger and a better climber right now.

"But the thing about climbing is there's such a massive mental aspect and skills aspect to it that even if you're the strongest guy in the world, you're the strongest at a certain thing, if you can't handle the competition mentally, then you won't be able to perform as good as someone who's maybe not as strong, but incredibly mentally strong and able to get the most out of themselves in competition.

"This season has been so valuable because now I feel I'm able to handle that dementia side of it way better.

"I'm able to channel those nerves and that expectation and then use it as fuel to drive me in competition.

"Whilst it's been quite a wild season, I've had some bad results. I've won World Cups this season and also had some of my worst results of my career in the span of one or two weeks.

"It's pretty crazy. Now, two weeks out from the World Champs, I'm in an incredibly good place.

• ‘It still hasn’t sunk in’ - Roberts reflects on ‘truly incredible’ climbing gold

"I've learned so much from all of the World Cups. I'm just now so, so psyched to get out there and just show my best."

Roberts speaks in a manner that belies his age, a level-headed individual who knows all about the rising wall of expectation that comes with the territory when the hunter becomes the hunted.

At the highest level of professional sport, fine margins can determine entire legacies, where precocious talents can fail to live up to the hype across an entire career.

The recent international break in the footballing world has brought this topic back to the surface, with Michael Owen debating his prowess as a boy wonder compared to Wayne Rooney.

The challenge for the likes of Roberts, among other exceptionally gifted young athletes at the peak of their profession, is to emulate what Rooney achieved over a longer period than the ceiling Owen reached too soon.

Image credit: Getty Images

Learning to wrestle with the mental side of the sport has been Roberts' focus as much as anything else in the intervening months since last year's crowning moment, and the goal now is to bring about a greater consistency in his performances.

Roberts continues: "It's not going to be long until I'm on the flight over there [to the World Championships] so I'm trying to make sure my sessions are really short, sharp and starting to rest a lot.

"It's been a pretty wild year. As I had trained for [winning Olympic gold] for so long, I never really expected what it would be like to be on the other side of it.

"This season has been like a bit of a rollercoaster. Right from the very high of coming off the gold to going back into a training season and then the World Cup season starting earlier this year.

"To now have another big event approaching, it feels pretty good to be gearing up for something big again.

"There has definitely been a bit of a shift in pressure and expectation - and that's been something which I've been dealing with.

"The start of this season, I really started to feel that pressure, and you can't really be prepared. You prepare yourself for the Olympics, and then once you're on the other side of it, I almost didn't really know what to do with myself.

"I didn't know what to do next. So resetting the season and taking it more chilled was very important for me, and now I'm actually in a way better place. I've been competing in a few World Cups, and I've really found the drive again."

Roberts received an outpouring of support from the climbing world and beyond following his admission at the start of the summer that he sometimes struggles with imposter syndrome, such has been the reaction to his Paris success.

Toby Roberts win climbing gold for Team GB.

Image credit: Getty Images

Being a role model to a new wave of aspiring climbers comes with its own pressure, a rocky ascent in itself, but Roberts is heading to South Korea with no thoughts of climbing defensively.

"It's one thing to do it once, and it's another thing to do it consistently over many years," he explains.

"There's examples where people who explode onto the scene, get some really good results, and then they can't quite handle the pressure.

"They can't get the longevity, and they find themselves losing interest in the sport. That [longevity] is what I really want.

"It's amazing that I've been able to do it once, and I've got an Olympic gold when I was 19, but now I'm just so motivated to train hard and get the longevity that I want out of this sport.

"I want to compete to the highest level and be competitive for as long as I can. I don't want to let that pressure get to me and this season has actually been really good.

"It's not been my best season in terms of results, but in terms of re-framing what it means to compete at the highest level, it's been incredibly valuable and I'm now in a place where I'm more motivated than ever to stay at that top level."

Roberts admits there was a drop-off in his training intensity last winter in the immediate aftermath of Paris 2024, and that contributed to indifferent results.

"I obviously trained and I was climbing a lot, but it wasn't necessarily as brutal as it normally was," he added. "Then coming into the start of the season, I knew I'd won the Olympics but I wasn't feeling amazing.

"It was quite hard for me to step into the competition and just go out there and climb because I was thinking about how people were going to be watching me and expecting me to win.

Great Britain's Toby Roberts

Image credit: Getty Images

"It was after the first few comps when I hadn't had the best results where I felt like I'd totally lost because I'd not lived up to what I did last year.

"In reality, it wasn't the case. When I released that [Instagram] post, I felt like I wasn't competing and wasn't feeling at my strongest, but the support I received made me realise that my whole self-worth isn't wrapped up in an Olympic medal.

"It really felt quite nice, all of that support. That really helped me get past that little hiccup and then just get back to competing because I just absolutely love it.

"I've never fallen out of love with the sport. I've always loved climbing and that never changed. It was just I found it quite hard to compete in a competition environment.

"I've never once questioned my love for climbing and that's what's really nice is that no matter what happens, no matter how bad a result I get, no matter how good a result I get, my opinion on climbing will never change."

Toby Roberts has had to wrestle with the mental side of the sport

Image credit: Red Bull

Roberts is looking up and not over his shoulder as he seeks to add to his growing reputation in Seoul later this month, live on TNT Sports and discovery+.

"I'm feeling good and I'm pretty psyched," he adds. "Obviously, because it's top-level sport, anything can happen. The margins are so fine.

"You can't exactly predict who's going to win so I'm psyched to get out there and show my best.

"When everyone else is so strong, you're just going to fall behind them if you climb defensively. To get a medal, you have to go out and attack the roots and have no regrets.

"It would be great to back up what happened in Paris with another victory and I'm always going into competition and backing myself so I'm always aiming for the gold medal.

"It would be absolutely incredible to walk away with one because the disciplines in the World Championships are separated out into boulder and lead separately.

"It would be absolutely incredible to get a podium in both but for me, I don't necessarily like to think about the outcome. I just like to go and give it my all like I did at the Olympics."

How to watch Climbing World Championships on TNT and discovery+

The Climbing World Championships will be broadcast live on TNT Sports and discovery+ from September 21-28.

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