Oriane Bertone and Toby Roberts Are Olympic-Bound

The two young climbers dominated the European Qualifier comp, earning gold medals and Olympic tickets

Photo by: Jan Virt/IFSC

Aaron Pardy October 29, 2023

The 2023 IFSC European Qualifier is a wrap. Climbers from across Europe came together in Laval, France over the past few days to compete for a chance to participate in the 2024 Paris Olympics Boulder & Lead Combined event. Competition was tight in both the men’s and women’s fields, but two young climbers rose to the top – France’s Oriane Bertone and Great Britain’s Toby Roberts.

Bertone was the only competitor to top all four problems in the Boulder round. She flashed three of the four problems, leaving her with a near perfect score of 99.9 heading into the Lead round. The gold medal and Olympic qualifying spot was hers if she could keep calm and reach halfway up the route in terms of points. She did just that and the French crowd went wild.

“I was trying to pay attention to the crowd’s reaction whenever I was grabbing a new hold,” said Bertone after her win. “I was thinking ‘Is it this one? No. Is it the next one? No.’ And when I took the 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”

Bertone in the finals. Photo by Jan Virt/IFSC.

Roberts had a good Boulder round, topping two of the four problems. Sam Avezou moved into the Lead round ahead in points, with Roberts essentially tied with Alberto Ginés López, Mejdi Schalck, and Adam Ondra. Because he won the semi-final round, Roberts climbed the Lead route last. To win, he had to beat Ginés López’s highpoint of 64, a hold that also sent Ondra groundward. Roberts looked tense for much of the first half of the route. He appeared to be fading but he kept pushing to match Ginés López’s highpoint. He continued climbing and started amping up the crowd, obviously catching a second wind. He rested at the penultimate hold, launched a huge dyno, and stuck the final hold of the route.

Bertone, 18, had a very solid World Cup season this year. She picked up one gold and two silvers in Boulder World Cups and placed second at the Boulder World Championships in Bern. Roberts, also 18, had a breakout season this year. He won both a gold and bronze in the Boulder World Cup circuit and a gold at the Lead World Cup in Chamonix.

“I have literally no words now,” said Roberts after his victory. “I don’t think is ever going to sink in. Coming into this event, I tried not to have any expectations and just enjoy climbing. It is such a big dream for me, I’ve been training for it for so long. I came so close to it in Bern, but I think I let the pressure get the best of me there, and my weaknesses got exposed. So the aim going away from Bern was to work on my weaknesses, come into this event with a clear head, and just enjoy the climbing.”

Bertone and Roberts are the ninth and tenth athletes to qualify for the Paris Olympics Boulder & Lead Combined event. So far, they will be joined by Jakob Schubert, Colin Duffy, Tomoa Narasaki, Jesse Grupper, Janja Garnbret, Jessica Pilz, Ai Mori, and Natalia Grossman. More Olympic qualifying events will be coming up in the following months and in the new year.