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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Sport
Kate McCusker

Olympic champion Toby Roberts’ example is sending young people up the wall

Ashley Loveday, 15, climbs a wall at Clip ’n Climb in Cambridge, which saw a 35% rise in footfall in the week after Toby Roberts won his gold medal.
Ashley Loveday, 15, climbs a wall at Clip ’n Climb in Cambridge, which experienced a 35% rise in footfall in the week after Toby Roberts won his gold medal. Photograph: Antonio Olmos/The Observer

“He’s really good at climbing,” says eight-year-old Ivy Wilson, who has just scaled a wall at the Cambridge branch of Clip ’n Climb, the New Zealand-founded “theme-park meets climbing walls” experience that spawned a global phenomenon. “I like how he did it so fast.”

The man in question is Toby Roberts – the 19-year-old ­climbing wunderkind who struck gold for Team GB in the men’s boulder and lead event at this summer’s Olympics in Paris.

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