BOY WONDER
Tearful Daley pays tribute to dad after 13-year wait for gold
From
AS Tom Daley clutched the Olympic gold medal his thoughts turned to the father he had lost.
To Rob, who had been there with him at the start of his incredible journey from 14-year-old boy wonder in Plymouth to champion here in Tokyo.
“My dad was my biggest cheerleader,” said Daley, 27, wiping away tears as he left the podium where he and partner Matty Lee had collected the spoils of victory in the men’s synchronised 10m platform.
“I know he would be extremely proud of how I have become an Olympic champion.”
Daley and Lee produced the performance of their lives to hold off Chinese duo Cao Yuan and Chen Aisen over six rounds and win by just 1.23 points. To put into perspective just how close that was, the bronze medal was more than 30 points behind silver.
The Britons scored perfect 10s for two of their dives and delivered their slickest routines when it mattered most. The emotion flowed at the end as Daley, competing in his fourth Olympics, was hooked up to a live TV link with husband Dustin and son Robbie poolside. But his thoughts quickly turned to his late dad “because this was always our dream growing up”.
Tom said: “Dad took me to every single training session, to every competition that he could, whether domestic or international. He never got to see me win an Olympic medal, not in London, not in Rio, not here.
“He never saw me get married, have a child. He never got to teach me to drive, have a pint down the pub.”
Rob, who died in 2011 at the age of 40 following a battle with brain cancer, would have been proud as punch of the way his son triumphed over adversity.
Daley jnr had kept secret the fact he sustained a serious knee injury that threatened his participation here as recently as last month.
“In June, I tore my meniscus and went under knee surgery to get it removed,” he revealed. “I couldn’t straighten my leg. It was locked and I couldn’t walk or do anything and there was a chance I wasn’t going to be able to be here.
“The specialists explained the risks with surgery but it was either I can’t walk or surgery, so I had to risk it.
“There was a lot of visualisation, a lot of trust in my experience and the process of getting back.
“They said it would be four to six weeks and it was six by the time we left. I am extremely thankful for everyone who made it possible that we could even dive today.”
You would never have known there had been an issue as he threw himself off the top board in perfect sync with Lee, 23, who “idolised” Daley growing up. For two dives they held second spot before losing ground on their third.
They were far from done, though, and fought back quite brilliantly to nick it by the narrowest of margins.
“We believed we could win and it played out how we visualised it,” Daley said.
He never got to see me win a medal at Games