Tom Daley has announced his retirement from diving.
In an interview with Vogue, the 30-year-old has confirmed he will not dive competitively again and that his fifth Olympics was his last.
It is the end of a totemic career that has produced five Olympic medals and countless unforgettable moments as Daley has built an indelible bond with the British public.
The Plymothian’s last act was to win 10m synchro silver with Noah Williams at Paris 2024, completing the set of Olympic medals in the process.
“It was emotional at the end, up there on the platform, knowing it was going to be my last competitive dive,” he told Vogue. “But I have to make the decision at some point, and it feels like the right time. It’s the right time to call it a day.”
It is fitting that Daley was chosen as Flagbearer for the Opening Ceremony in the French capital, the first diver to do so, sharing the honour with rowing’s Helen Glover.
WHEN DID TOM DALEY START DIVING
Daley’s incredible journey dates back to the Life Centre in Plymouth where an eight-year-old Daley was spotted by a coach, Andy Banks.
Banks remembers: “He was zippy, he was fast, he was aware of where he was and he had an ability to get through the water really quite well. The other thing that impressed me is when you said to him: ‘you’re doing this but what I want is that,’ his ability to make changes was significant.”
There was only one problem: Daley couldn’t bear being away from mum Debbie and dad Rob. Training camps were an ordeal and coaches had to ask him to practise sleepovers.
One observer recalls: “I walk into Tom’s room and you see these windows – the kind of hotel windows that only open so far – and he’s standing, balling his eyes out, trying to push the window going, ‘If you don’t call my parents now, I’m going to jump, I want to get out of here, I’m not doing this.’
“I was there a long time, listening, reassuring him, reminding him we were there to help him achieve his big-dream goals, and we finally got him downstairs to dinner and he sat right in the corner and all he ate was Jaffa Cakes.”
The diving pool was the only place where everything felt okay and that is one of the reasons why we saw him back on Team GB for a fourth Olympics.
TOM DALEY: THE INSPIRATION
The images of a 14-year-old Daley, the youngest British Olympian in generations, at Beijing 2008 are still so vivid.
Diving is Daley and Daley is diving. He has transcended the sport many times over but it all comes back to that feeling of flying through the air and losing just enough control.
Daley has weathered his fair share of storms: he was seriously bullied at school, taunted as ‘Speedo Boy’ and threatened with broken legs. The devastating loss of Rob, who followed his son to competitions around the world, to a brain tumour in 2011 undoubtedly shaped the years that followed.
Daley has always met such moments with openness, a willingness to be vulnerable and a sharp awareness of how he can use his platform to advance causes he cares about.
After coming out on his YouTube channel in 2013, he has been a tireless campaigner and advocate for the LGBTQ+ community. He has used the levers of the Commonwealth Games as a means to challenge anti-gay laws and made it his ‘mission’ to use sport to shame such countries, carrying an rainbow flag into the opening ceremony at Birmingham 2022.
PARIS 2024 CALLING
The answer to Tom Daley’s new ‘why’ is a complex one but we definitely know ‘when’ he decided to come back to the Olympic stage – a visit to the USA Olympic and Paralympic Museum in Colorado last year.
The 29-year-old started sobbing when a video tugged on the heartstrings of what it means to be an Olympian. His son, Robbie, asked him why he was crying: “‘These are happy tears, I just really miss diving and I wish I could go back and compete in the Olympics.’”
Robbie returned: ‘Papa, I want to see you dive in the Olympics.’ The deal was done.
Daley got back into full-time training, dividing his time between the University of California and the London Aquatics Centre while still putting family first. He is still coached by Jane Figueiredo, who he has worked with since 2013.
He duly struck up a new synchro partnership with Noah Williams, with the pair qualifying for the Games thanks to a silver medal at the World Championships in February and then reaching the podium in Paris.
Sportsbeat 2024
Sophie Anderson, a UK-based writer, is your guide to the latest trends, viral sensations, and internet phenomena. With a finger on the pulse of digital culture, she explores what’s trending across social media and pop culture, keeping readers in the know about the latest online sensations.
