Now Paris party is over, what does new year hold for GB’s Olympians?
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Gold, silver and bronze medallists reflect on what they did as 2024 broke and how they will celebrate 12 months on. Toby Roberts’ last New Year’s Eve is all a bit of a blur. It’s not that he was drinking – anything but – just that he was in the thick of such a hellish stretch of specialist winter training that the days have all blended into one. His father, and coach, Tristian, eventually reminds him that they spent most of it doing a strength session on a climbing board with a couple of friends. “Oh,” Toby says, not quite recalling. “Honestly, my New Year’s Eve is not that exciting. I just do my same old.”.
![[Andy Bull]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/uploads/2017/10/06/Andy-Bull,-L.png?width=75&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
Which for Roberts, means rock climbing. Back then, everything he was doing was specifically aimed at preparing for the men’s boulder and lead combined event at the Paris Olympics. “Obviously, I had to be very diligent in all sorts of ways, with my training, my sleep, my diet, just everything you can imagine. It was all driven towards Paris.” They spent the first half of the year travelling across continents, from Europe to Asia to the US, to work on the specific skills he would need for the courses they would face in the Olympics.
![[Toby Roberts loves being out on the edge, challenging himself on especially difficult climbs.]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/eb11cfc9bf096d972f70fa0d3fc5c481e3c746af/0_255_5378_3227/master/5378.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
It paid off. Roberts won the gold when his main competitor fell during his final climb. “In that moment, when they fall in front of you and you’re watching on the stage, it’s quite hard because obviously you want to celebrate, but you also don’t want to make it look like you’re celebrating them falling off.”.
![[Ben Proud, with gold medallist Cameron McEvoy and France’s Florent Manaudou.]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/d830bdaae7052167f747b62038a0620f8c256f2c/0_288_5400_3239/master/5400.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
Roberts is only 19, and he had invested so much time and energy in his ambition that there was a risk he would struggle afterwards. It is common for medal winners to be overcome by a sense of anticlimax. “But climbing is different, there’s so many different aspects to it that you’re never doing the same thing, so it never really feels like you can get bored of it,” he says. He took a short holiday, and then decided to get back into competition.
![[Emma Wilson is distraught after taking bronze]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/29d31f709a5badde94b8bb1e11925ef7331986f6/0_144_6312_3787/master/6312.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
