Tom Daley: Diving sensation

Plymouth-born Tom Daley competed in his first Olympic Games as a teenager. And since then, he’s become the poster boy for British diving.

Daley specialises in a number of diving events. He’s won five Olympic medals in the 10m platform and synchronised platform – a British record. He’s also won gold medals at the World Championships, Commonwealth Games and European Championships.

But his achievements aren’t just confined to the pool. An advocate for LGBTQ+ rights, a TV personality and a prolific knitter, Daley has become one of the country’s most prominent sports stars.

Daley is something of a diving prodigy and he began breaking diving records in his youth.

He started diving at the age of seven. At age 10, he won a British National Junior platform title. And in 2008, a few months before his 14th birthday, Daley won gold at the 10m platform event at the European Aquatics Championships. He held the record of being Europe’s youngest diving champion until 2019.

At 14 years and three months, he competed in the Beijing 2008 Olympics, finishing seventh in the platform and eighth in the synchronised platform events. This made him the second youngest British Olympian at that time.

When the Olympics arrived on home turf in London in 2012, hopes were pinned on 18-year-old Daley to bag his first medal at the Games.

Diving in front of a buzzing home crowd at the Aquatics Centre in Stratford’s Olympic Park, he and diving partner Peter Waterfield placed fourth for the 10m synchronised platform.

But in the men’s 10m platform, Daley won a place on the podium with bronze. Nearly 16 million viewers watched the dive on Olympic broadcasting that day. His Adidas Team GB swimming trunks, designed by Stella McCartney, are now in our collection.

Daley dedicated his medal to his dad, who’d passed away the previous year. He later revealed in his 2021 autobiography, Coming Up For Air, that some of his dad’s ashes had been buried near the Aquatics Centre diving boards. “He got the best seat in the house,” Daley told the Guardian. “It was very special to me that I won my first Olympic medal in that pool.”

He continued to train regularly at the east London pool before moving from London to Los Angeles in the early 2020s.

Daley had to wait until the Tokyo Olympics – delayed a year to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic – to win his longed-for Olympic gold medal.

In the 10m synchronised platform, Daley and Matty Lee beat Chinese pair Cao Yuan and Chen Aisen with 471.81 points to their 470.58. They ended 17 years of China’s dominance in that event.

"That moment, being about to be announced as Olympic champions, I was gone. I was blubbering," he told BBC Sport. "To finally have this around my neck, I've been diving over 20 years."

Daley lives in the spotlight even when he’s on dry land. Since he came out in a YouTube video in 2013, he’s been a vocal advocate for LGBTQ+ equality and has used his public profile to support charities like the support line Switchboard. He’s also campaigned for the safety and rights of athletes in Commonwealth countries with anti-LGBTQ+ laws, which are in many cases a legacy of British colonial rule.

In 2022, he was made an OBE (or Officer of the Order of the British Empire), an award given by the British monarchy, to recognise his services to diving, LGBTQ+ rights and charity.

He’s also become a bit of a knitting sensation, having picked up knitting and crocheting during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. He founded his own brand, Made With Love, and published his book, Made with Love: Get Hooked with 30 Knitting and Crochet Patterns, in 2022.

At the Paris Olympics, Daley and diving partner Noah Williams won silver in the 10m synchronised platform. He competed with his husband and two sons in the audience.

After the Games drew to a close, Daley confirmed his retirement from competitive diving. He hung up his trunks a five-time Olympic medallist – the most successful diver in British Olympic history.