Draft:Robbie Gorn

Robbie Gorn
Robbie Flett Gorn, born the 12 of January 2008, is a professional ice, rock climber and alpinist competing for Team Great Britain(Team GB). His most notable achievements include winning the U-16 Ice Climbing World championships in Oulu, Finland.

Early Life
Born in Kirkwall. Orkney, on 12/01/2008. His parents were also athletes, and so were his brother. One of them competed for Team GB as a boxer, Fraser Gorn, and his other brother, Hamish Gorn, is a professional golfer. Notably, his father Ian Gorn won both the junior and senior Ba's - one of the few to ever do this. His parents were very supportive of a young Robbie, with passions for sport. However, Robbie was not always a climber, he only started climbing as a 14 year old- before that he was a boxer and a very talented scrum half at Dunfermline RFC. With this club, he won the Caledonia Cup. Even though Robbie had only been climbing for a short while before his success, he puts this down to his hard work and mental discipline. He learned this from his older brothers, who toughened him as a child, and from the movie, The Lion King, which taught the ever important lesson of resilience.

Climbing Life and Training.
Robbie found his love for climbing when he was 14, first introduced to it by his cousin who is an outdoor instructor. Robbie instantly felt the spark grow inside of him... he had caught the climbing bug. He knew this path would be a long and winding, but as a young enthusiastic climber, he was ready for what lay ahead. He took to climbing naturally, and on his first climb, he got to a 6B+. Quite the achievement. This grade for some is only achieved after many hard months of climbing, but for young Robbie he managed it on his first day. Robbie started off by bouldering a few times a week, fuelled by love for the sport. but gradually, as his technique improved, he started to plateau. He realised the only way to improve was to get physically stronger.

Robbie took a different approach to training than the traditional climber. most climbers would train by climbing, and improving finger strength, but Robbie decided to train more in the gym than on the rock walls, focussing on climbing specific exercises such as hack squats, Powell Raises, deadlifts and other intense lifting sessions. Inspired by weightlifters more than climbers, Robbie quickly built a strong physique and became a much better climber. Achieving a 7B+ within his first year of climbing.

Ice Climbing
Robbie was gifted for his 14th birthday a taster session to ice climbing. This was a rare occurrence, as very few people start ice climbing such a short time after starting to climb altogether. He quickly favoured this over rock climbing, due to the intense fear factor of climbing with metal spikes and in freezing conditions. Within a year, he had got onto the Great British Ice Climbing Team.

Competitions
Robbie competed at his first competition only a few months after starting climbing. He had entered the British Ice Climbing Championships where he placed 16th. This point in his career was probably the turning point, as watching the crowd and atmosphere of the fans cheering on the finalists inspired Robbie to make the finals and be the being cheered. After a year of ice climbing he had went to his first international competition, in Brno, Czechia. Robbie was a nervous wreck before hand and never ate any food before the competition, but in spite of that he climbed hard and came 2nd (his first podium in climbing). His first big win was in Oulu, Finland at the Youth World Championships. After topping both the qualifying routes - in the fastest time - he had made the finals, qualifying in 1st place. At this point as Robbie was waiting in isolation to climb the finals, he thought about a book he had read, "The Fear Bubble" by Ant Middleton. He used the technique that Ant Middleton wrote about to control his fear and use it to win. As Robbie stood up to the  start of the route, he was ready to win. Robbie managed to top the finals route in the fastest time, beating the reigning champion, and favourite to win... Landers Gaydosh. Robbie became world champion!

You can watch his climb here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKTTH9ACAic. Robbie starts climbing 30mins in to the video.