Paris Olympics: Tom Daley Set For Historic Fifth Games, 16 Years After Debut At Beijing 2008
Tom Daley will on Monday compete in an historic fifth Olympic Games, 16 years after making his debut aged 14 at Beijing 2008.
Now 30, the Team GB athlete will become the first British diver to take to the Olympic boards for the fifth time when he competes alongside Noah Williams in the 10m synchro at the Aquatics Centre on Monday.
Daley became the youngest European diving champion when he won the 10m platform at Eindhoven 2008 aged 13 years and 10 months, a record subsequently eclipsed by Oleksii Sereda who was three months younger when he replicated that feat in 2019.
Since 2008, Daley has won Olympic, world, European and Commonwealth titles and now stands on the brink of adding to his silverware on the biggest stage of all.
It has been a long and varied journey for Daley since his first foray onto the national and international stage under the watchful eye of then-coach Andy Banks in Plymouth.
Tom Daley: Photo Courtesy: Jim Thurston
Daley concurred, saying: “It’s very surreal. I know I had it in my mind that I wanted to go to five Olympic Games but I never thought it would actually be possible because you never know what can happen.
“I am just super-excited to get out there and give it my best shot and I think that is something nice to look back on, you know in 20, 30 years’ time when I’m sitting there not doing very much – I can look back and go you know what? I managed to go to five Olympic Games and I’ll be very happy with it.”
Daley is now based in Los Angeles where he lives with husband Dustin Lance Black and children Robbie and Phoenix.
Given LA 2028 will be on his doorstep, will there be a chance of a sixth Games?
“Oh, I don’t know about six,” he told reporters. “But also I said that the last time and then here I am back.
“And they might be adding another event into the 2028 Games in the mixed team so who knows?”
Daley’s Longevity At The Very Top Table
Daley reached the final of the 10m platform and 10m synchro in Beijing 16 years ago, since when he has made a trip to the podium at each of the subsequent Games.
Bronze in the 10m platform at London 2012 was followed by third in the synchro four years later in Rio and a further bronze in the individual in Tokyo in 2021.
Daley finally clinched gold in the 10m synchro alongside Matty Lee in the Japanese capital.
He has been on the international podium for more than half his life and it was the birth of son Robbie in 2018 and the prospect of an Olympic title that kept him going until Tokyo.
Noah Williams & Tom Daley: Photo courtesy: World Aquatics
Robbie’s desire to see his father compete and his realisation he still had to sign off on a final chapter sees Daley return in the French capital.
What, then, is key to his long-lasting success?
He told Swimming World: “I think it’s a good question. In terms of carrying on until Tokyo, it was an Olympic gold medal that kept me going. And also I genuinely think that going into 2018 was probably the moment where it was a little bit of a deciding factor of whether I was going to carry on or not.
“In 2018 I had stress fractures in my shins, I was sick all the time, I just felt completely overwhelmed with the sport of diving and whether I wanted to carry on or not.
“And then Robbie was born, our first child, and from then on it just shifted my perspective of what matters most.
“I started letting go of the things that didn’t matter and that were insignificant and weighing me down mentally and that allowed me to really enjoy my time at diving.
“And I think that’s something that has been really hopefully post-2018 because in 2018 there could have been a time when I would have hung up my trunks.
“But I’ve decided to come back and I think this time around as well going into Paris, my family being there and all of that is like a massive motivating factor for me.”
Escaping The Glare of Social Media
Daley was in the spotlight before he reached his teenage years and first started to taste local, regional and then national success.
Not that he had to endure the glare of social media as do many young athletes today.
“Back in 2008 Twitter hadn’t been created, I think YouTube was getting up and running.
“There wasn’t really much social media so there wasn’t the same kind of glare online as there is now and people to be able to have their own opinions.
Tom Daley: Photo Courtesy: British Swimming
“When I was younger it was a lot more controlled because it was the media so everything was factual and everything was fact-checked in a way that was a lot more positive towards younger athletes.
“Whereas now there’s lots of people being able to have whatever opinion they want online and being able to say it however they want in whatever fashion they want.
“My rule on social media is that when I go on, if I see posts that don’t inspire me, make me laugh, motivate me, or inform me about my family; if I find myself feeling slightly negative about anything, I unfollow because I try to curate my social media in a way that it is a happy place for me and to be able to communicate with the people who want to follow along what I am doing.
“When I go into Games-time and stuff, I have a phone number that I only give to my husband, my mum and my coach so that they’re the only people who will ever need to contact me in that time.”