"I remember seeing my dad sneak in with a BBC journalist and he had this beaming smile," he recalls.
Daley's 2009 World championship gold medal-winning post-event press conference was interrupted by his father Rob. Daley rolls his eyes, but also smiles, when recalling the now infamous press conference. While his landmark performance in the 10m platform was striking, what happened in the hour after was perhaps even more memorable. In Rome, the revitalised 15-year-old graduated from medal contender to fully grown champion.
Instead he was offered the chance to join Plymouth College towards the end of his first year of GCSEs, a month before the 2009 World Championships. It left Daley wanting to be home schooled. "It got to a point where I was always embarrassed to talk about diving and I couldn't take a compliment, because whenever someone said something nice, I had this fear I was going to be mocked." "For a long time, I just kept quiet about it, but I bottled up so much that eventually I just couldn't train and it drained me so much mentally until I had nothing left. "Some people at my school were so happy for me, but others started being really horrible and I was bullied," he says. He didn't challenge for medals in China, but the crowd loved watching the young teenager - cheering on 'baby Daley' throughout the event. He had qualified for Beijing 2008, aged 13, and cameras were trained on his every move. "We were on holiday in our caravan and everyone was going to the kids' clubs but I was determined to stay in and watch the diving so I was leaning out of the window with the aerial to try to get a better signal," he recalls while laughing.įour years later, Daley was already gaining more attention than his "idols" ever had. He vividly recalls the efforts he went to, as an 11-year-old, to watch the men's synchronised 10m platform final during Athens 2004, when Leon Taylor and Pete Waterfield won silver for Britain.
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"Although we didn't know it at the time, my son (Robbie) needed to see me win an Olympic gold and the fact that I can say that my son watched me become Olympic champion - albeit on TV as they couldn't be here - is such a great feeling."ĭaley has always lived and breathed for the Olympics. "Now my world and structure is my family and it was my husband who said to me that my story wasn't finished. "I thought I was going to win an Olympic gold medal in Rio, and that turned out the complete opposite by a long shot," recalls the diver. While that same dream drove him today, parenthood and his partner helped give him a new perspective, on both triumph and trauma. Tokyo - his fourth Olympics - arguably represented his last realistic chance to claim it. "But clearly there was just something in me that wanted it so much." "If my son was talking like that at the same age, I'd be like 'wow, calm down, take your time, enjoy it,'" he told BBC Sport. Now aged 27 and a father himself, he says he finds it "crazy" to see how "focused and obsessed" he was as a child. He has suffered several media run-ins during the course of a life lived under the spotlight.
He has become one of sport's highest-profile gay athletes, a role model for others in the LGBTQ+ community. He feared the consequences of revealing his sexuality before coming out in 2013.ĭaley is Britain's most decorated diver, but he possesses a level of fame that far transcends his discipline. In 2011, his father died at the age of 40. This achievement in Tokyo and others - including becoming world champion at 15 and twice winning Olympic bronze - owe much to a remarkable resolve that's also helped him overcome struggles away from the pool. This is the story of Tom Daley's path to gold medal glory. ĭuring the medal ceremony tears poured from his eyes at the enormity of it all.Īnd what a journey it has been. He and Matty Lee secured a historic synchronised 10m platform Olympic title at Tokyo 2020. Sixteen years later and his dream was finally achieved. "If I wasn't to win, it would drive me on to be at the next Olympics and get that medal then."ĭaley was just 11 when he stated that mission.