Rio heartbreak for Daley
‘Four years of hard work and effort... it’s tough to accept’
TOM DALEY’S Olympic dream ended with little more than a bellyflop on the day he had intended to validate his status as the golden boy of global diving.
Instead of progressing with ease to the final of the 10 metres platform, he came last out of 18 divers by producing one of the most inexplicable performances of these Games.
Even if it was going to be a tough ask to outscore the Chinese pair, Aisen Chen and Bo Qui, the Plymouth-born, London-living celebrity diver was considered in serious contention for a medal of some sort.
He came into yesterday’s competition on the back of his personal best, 571.85, in qualifying the night before, when he was virtually flawless in all six dives.
Nor was there any early warning sign as Daley started his semi-final with a respectable 78.40. That placed him eighth. But what unfolded next could only be watched through your fingers. It was that excruciating.
Daley’s second effort was his trademark firework dive — a reverse three-and-a-half somersaults with tuck. That scored 54.00. His third dive notched 47.25. That moved him down to 18th. He wore a pained expression but there was still time to get himself back on track and squeeze into last night’s final, surely. After all he, rather than Britain’s gold medallists Jack Laugher and Chris Mears from the synchronised 3m springboard, is the supposed star of the sport.
And the fourth dive did provide some hope of a late resurrection, scoring 81.40. He was not totally vertical as he entered the water, but it was a massive improvement.
The fifth was better again: 91.80 to move him to within 17.5 points of the 12th place he needed to progress to the final, but the less said about his sixth dive (50.40), the better.
Out and dejected, he hugged his American coach, Jane Figueiredo, who has been with him since she came from Houston to London after the last Olympics. They held a long embrace, finding it difficult to rationalise the total failure that had just happened.
Had he frozen with nerves? He has no history of being a choker, and had never missed out on a major competition final since emerging on to the world stage as a 14-year-old at the Beijing Olympics. Daley, who won bronze in the same event four years ago, was upset afterwards, unable to find any explanation.
He said: ‘It doesn’t get any lower than this. I’ve no idea what happened. I’ve been feeling so good. Training’s been going really well, I’m in the shape of my life, moving better than I’ve ever moved before, and qualifying showed that.
‘Today I don’t really know what went wrong. I was fighting until the end. Every single time, even if I “missed” a dive, I’d move on to the next one. I was constantly trying improve my place and fight to try to qualify for the final. When it came to the last dive and I needed 9.5s and 10s to qualify. I know I can do that.
‘I gave it my everything and tried my absolute best. It’s just heartbreaking to think that four years of hard work and effort ... it’s tough to accept.’
Daley’s voice was trailing off and breaking with emotion at this point. All those hours for nothing. Even the bronze he won with Dan Goodfellow in the synchronised 10m competition earlier in the Games was far from his mind at that point.
Perhaps he thought of his mother, Debbie, and his partner, 42-year-old screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, as well as his youthful support base back in Britain. As the scores came up, Lance tweeted his support. ‘We are all so proud of all you’ve achieved,’ he said. ‘We fight another day. Onward.’
The nearest we got to understanding what had happened was provided by Figueiredo, who cited another former charge, the Russian Vera Ilyina, who won gold in the 3m synchro at Sydney 2000. She sometimes got on the board and simply could not dive — a variation of the yips in golf.
Figueiredo said: ‘Tom was fired up in his head but his head just couldn’t get the message through to his body. It is very painful to watch, but it can happen in diving and there is nothing you can do about it.’
Daley promised he would go on to compete in Tokyo four years hence, along with Figueirdo. ‘It has made me more determined to get a gold medal in this event than ever,’ he said. ‘I believe I can still do it.’