When Tom Daley entered the Tokyo Olympics, his motivation was clear: after winning two bronze medals in London 2012 and Rio 2016, he was aiming for gold. In front of an empty stadium, he finally did it, winning the synchronized 10m platform title with Matty Lee.
But standing poolside at the London Aquatics Centre, just days before setting off for a record-breaking fifth Olympic Games in Paris, the diver explained that this time, things were a little different.
“I won an Olympic gold medal,” he said. “For me, this Olympic gold medal is for my children to be there to watch. This is indeed what I am most looking forward to participating in this competition.
In the stands in Paris were Daly’s screenwriter husband Dustin Lance Black, whom he married in 2017, and their two sons, six-year-old Robbie and Phoenix Phoenix Rose, who turned one year old in April.
They will be there to see Daley become the first British diver to compete in his fifth Olympics – alongside 24-year-old Noah Williams in synchronized jumping – after starting in Beijing in 2008 as a 14-year-old started his diving career.
Now a senior member of the 11-man British diving team, he still looks at least a decade younger than his 30 years, but admits his body tells a different story. These days, he wakes up sore and needs “more mechanical help,” including a pair of special heated pants he wears when he goes to the pool.
“In 2008, I probably said, ‘Let’s do it,’ and off I went. Now I need to do more warm-ups, more specific conditioning and prep exercises,” he said. “But as far as the dive itself, when I dived, the dive looked good.”
While his body may be hurting, he’s in better shape mentally. “In Beijing, London and Rio, I tortured myself through the whole experience because I wanted to do well so badly,” he said. “This time, I got the gold medal. I’ve done everything I wanted to do in this sport… so for me, it’s like a bonus year that I can enjoy.
Realizing that this could be his last Olympics (“I don’t know six. But I also said this is the last and I’m here”), he is determined to enjoy every moment, aware that in previous games, trauma The intensity of the reaction setting experience has erased many memories. “This time I wanted to be present, immerse myself in it, look around, [think] ‘Wow. All these people are watching this game and I worked really hard for it and Noah and I are going to do our best. I think it’s going to be a big difference.
More than a year ago, Daley had no plans to go to Paris. He retired after the Tokyo Olympics but thanks his eldest son for getting him back in the pool. In the spring of 2023, he and his family visited the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Museum in Colorado Springs, where his second son was born. Staff greeted Daley with a standing ovation when he saw the Olympic rings presented to him by his parents, before a video exploring what it means to be an Olympian moved him to tears.
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“Robbie turned to me and said, ‘What’s wrong, Dad?’ and I just said, ‘I miss diving, I miss the Olympics. And Lance looked at me like, ‘Oh no—I know what this means…'” when Robbie said when he wanted to see his father dive at the Olympics, “this is it.”
“All of these obstacles need to be overcome,” he said. “So I started off pretty easy…without really telling anyone because I wanted to see how my body felt, and when I told you, I didn’t even know I might be sore in some places. .
This time, Daley did not compete in individual events, only in synchronized events with Williams, then a 12-year-old novice diver who watched Daley compete at the 2012 London Olympics. They had been paired together since November, when it became clear that Matty Lee, Daley’s gold medal partner in Tokyo, would not recover from his injury in time. “We’re working really well together as a team and starting to get really consistent scores that are as high, if not higher, than some of the scores we did with Matty. So, we’re in a really good space going into Paris.
He admits that being a five-time Olympian is quite surreal. “I wanted to go to five Olympics, but I never thought it was actually possible,” he said.
“I’m just so excited to go out and do my best. It’s a beautiful thing to look back on 20 or 30 years later. When I’m sitting there doing nothing, I can look back and say ‘You know what, I succeeded Having been to five Olympics,” I would be very happy about that.
