SWhen I first met Tom Daley during the school holidays in Plymouth sixteen years ago, he uttered a series of nonchalant catchphrases, including “blah-di-blah”, while talking about his growing fame , and revealed that his two brothers kept telling him he was “rubbish” as he prepared for his first Olympics.
Daley, who at just 13 had just become the youngest ever European diving champion, admitted he found it strange to appear in a fashion magazine ahead of the 2008 Beijing Olympics: “It was weird. Normally I would pull out pictures of athletes and hang them up. On the wall. Now young children will see my pictures.
I was reminded of this quote while watching a video Daley posted to his 3.1 million followers on Instagram in mid-June, in which the then-30-year-old showed off his characteristic ripped torso while walking on his hands before flipping over again. Feet and thumbs up – an upward sign under the blue California sky. “Celebrating my fifth official Olympic selection!” Daley wrote alongside two party emojis.
Daly and his husband, filmmaker and screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, are the parents of Robbie and Phoenix, and the story of his Olympic comeback has a Hollywood sheen. At Tokyo 2021, Daley won his first Olympic gold medal in the 10m synchronized event and claimed his third bronze medal on the individual podium.
It seemed like a happy ending to a brilliant career, but there was a lot of pain in his youth, with Daley enduring bullying at school and his father’s death six days after he turned 17. He endured Olympic disappointment.
After retiring and moving to California to await the birth of Phoenix, Daley and Black took Robbie to visit the Olympic and Paralympic Museum in Colorado Springs. Daley later said: “We had the best time and at the end we walked into a room to watch a video about what it means to be an athlete and see those inspiring journeys. I just cried. I couldn’t control myself. .I didn’t feel sad about diving.
When Robbie said, “Dad, I want to see you dive in the Olympics,” Daley had a startling new idea. For Daly, “Coming out of that museum, something changed, and it lit a new fire within me to see where it would go.”
He will now head to Paris to become the first British diver to compete in five Olympic Games. His Tokyo gold medal partner Marty Lee was injured after spinal surgery, so Daley will compete in the 10m synchronized diving with 24-year-old Noah Williams. At the London Olympics 12 years ago, Williams watched his hero in the crowd with dismay and elation.
Daley had just missed out on a podium finish with Pete Waterfield but found redemption after vicious abuse on social media and won his first Olympic medal, a bronze in the 10m platform.
Williams, who finished 27th out of 29 divers in his individual event in Tokyo, now sounds excited in the company of one of the sport’s biggest stars: “I don’t think people realize how good Tom is. Excellent. No one else in the world can come back two years out of retirement and be a world medalist and world champion. He’s miles above the rest.
Despite being from different continents, Daly and Williams remain a revelation. They clinched an Olympic spot by winning silver at the world championships in February. At the same event in Doha, Daley helped Team GB win gold in the mixed team event. Since then, Daley and Williams have stepped onto the podium at the World Cup in Germany and China.
“Noah is great,” Dailey said. “Considering we were a really new pairing and couldn’t train together all the time because I was in LA and he was in London, it worked out really well.”
Williams was even more excited: “I’ve got Tom, so that’s my secret weapon.”
It reminds me yet again of my first interview with Daley as a teenager. In 2008, he told me that he was going to Beijing with his lucky monkey: “I know he may not be very lucky, but because I have been carrying him for a long time, I don’t want to stop.”
Daley blushed and said, “He doesn’t have a name. He’s just my lucky monkey.”
For sixteen years Daley was a father figure and good luck charm to the ambitious British Olympic diving team. As usual, there may be drama or glory in Paris, which may bring tears of joy or heartache. Regardless of the outcome, however, Daley’s historic fifth consecutive Olympics is the mark of a top contender.
