Teen who relied on homemade climbing wall during lockdown now training for Olympics

By Tom Campbell and Megan Carr via SWNS

A teenager who trained on a homemade climbing wall in her back garden during lockdown could be on her way to the Olympics after becoming the youngest in the Team GB squad. 

Erin McNeice, 17, could be heading to the 2024 Paris Olympics after joining the UK's climbing squad.

The young athlete began climbing at the age of five, following in her dad's footsteps after he developed a passion for the sport at University.

Mrs. McNeice, who is only months away from sitting her A-levels, specializes in bouldering and rock climbing.

She said: "I got into it when my dad brought me to a climbing gym, I was very small and very light, so I could impress people, I liked it because I got attention.

"Being chosen for Team GB is still surreal, even though I work so hard for it, it doesn't feel real.

"But it's something that I've worked for over the past five or six years, and dreamed about pretty much every day so I'm very happy."

The young athlete came second at the National Competition in 2018 and has been climbing up the ranks ever since.

Following trials in Sheffield earlier this year, Erin received an email from Tom Greenall, head coach at GB Climbing, offering her a place on the team.

She said: "I actually dropped my phone on the floor with excitement.

"I rang mum straight away but couldn’t understand what she was saying as she wasn’t particularly coherent amongst the screams of joy.”

The year 13 student has a slightly downsized climbing wall at the bottom of her garden where she perfected her moves during lockdown.

She said: "It is about 6 feet 5 inches in height.

"We built it before lockdown but we made it a lot bigger during the pandemic so I trained on that most days."

In preparation for the 2024 games in Paris, Ms. McNeice will have to dedicate all of her spare time to training.

She could also find herself traveling to a different country every couple of weeks for competitions.

Already, there is a high chance she will be attending the Youth World Championships in Texas this year.

Ms. McNeice, from Sittingbourne in Kent, said: "I'm in my final year of A levels and train six days a week, on the wall and in the gym with one day a week active recovery.

"I don't have any free time, my life is wake up, go to school, revise, train, revise, go to sleep, wake up and do the same thing again."

Competitive climbing made its debut as an Olympic sport, at the 2020 Tokyo games - postponed to 2021 due to Covid-19.

It is broken down into three disciplines speed climbing, lead climbing and bouldering.

The speed climb is a straight race between athletes to see who reaches the top first, while the lead climb is who reaches the highest point.

For the bouldering event, each athlete gets four minutes to reach the top of four boulders with how many attempts it takes them influencing their final score.

The rising star says wanting to beat her older brother also helped motivate her to give 100 percent.

She said: "I also wanted to beat my older brother at something, but then when it started getting harder, I started getting scared because of the height.

"But after moving to Malaysia and then coming back to England when I was 12, I started to find my love and passion for it again.

"I just fell in love with it and then I found out about the opportunities it could give me and started training really hard for it."

While she has been offered a place at Sheffield Hallam University to study sports science, Ms. McNeice is thinking of putting studies on hold for the time being.

Sarah Palmer, publicity manager at her school Fulston Manor, said: “Erin is so humble in her achievements.

"It was Lucy who really pushed Erin to let me know she had finally got the good news she had been waiting for.

“Erin has always shone in climbing and bouldering.

"We have followed Erin’s climbing career for many years now and will continue to do so after she has left Fulston – I am pretty certain we will be seeing her in the Olympics.”

Erin, from Rodmersham Green, is scheduled to complete her studies in the next few months and will then put all her focus into climbing.

Ms. Palmer added: "If you're interested in climbing or any other sport, I would 100 percent say to go for it and just focus on enjoying it and doing what you like.

"The passion you have for that sport will drive you to achieve in it, just start off trying to enjoy it and see where that takes you."