A teenager who began rock climbing at just five, determined to beat her brother, has spent hours perfecting her skills on a home-made wall in her garden and could be heading to the Olympics.

At just 17, Erin McNeice of Rodmersham Green, near Sittingbourne, has become the youngest member of the Team GB squad.

Erin speaking about her life as a Team GB climber

The Fulston Manor student, who specialises in bouldering and rock climbing, began the sport around 10 years ago, following in her dad’s footsteps, who started climbing as a hobby at university.

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.

"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 the 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."

Erin has a slightly downsized climbing wall in her summer house at the bottom of her garden.

She said: "It is about 6ft 5in in height. We built it before lockdown but we made it a lot bigger during the pandemic so I trained on that most days."

It was in 2018, when Erin took part in her second international competition and won the silver medal, that she realised she had the potential to succeed at a professional level.

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

The Year 13 student, who studies biology, sport and psychology, 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.”

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

The event puts three types of sport climbing together - speed climbing, lead climbing and bouldering.

In speed climbing it is a straight race between athletes to reach the top first. In bouldering, athletes each get four minutes to reach the top of four boulders with their number of attempts influencing their final score.

For lead climbing the competitor who reaches the highest spot triumphs.

Erin now has hopes of joining the 2024 Olympics in Paris, but until then life is about to get incredibly busy for her.

She could be in a different country every couple of weeks and there is a high chance of her attending the Youth World Championships in Texas this year.

She added: "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."

Erin has got a conditional offer to Sheffield Hallam university for sport and exercise science.

However, she is unsure whether to go to university or postpone it until after her climbing career.

She said: "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."

Her best friend, Lucy Davis, has said she is incredibly proud of Erin.

She said: “She just works so hard all of the time and it has now paid dividends. All this while studying for her A-levels.”

Sarah Palmer, publicity manager at her school, agreed, saying: “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!”

Over the next few months Erin should finish her studying and hopes to put all her focus into climbing.

She added: "If you're interested in climbing or any other sport, I would 100% 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."

To see Erin's journey follow her on Instagram here.