Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Bend her victorious
Queen jokes with Tom ‘she should try gymnastics’
THE Queen floored diving star Tom Daley by jokingly saying she could be a gymnast.
Her Majesty’s quip came as she met Tom and fellow Olympians.
Gold medal-winning Tom, 27, revealed: “She commented on her height compared to some of the other athletes in the room and because me and the other athletes were quite small, she said, ‘Maybe I should try gymnastics’.
“She was fully game to get involved in the sport.”
The exchange came in 2016 when the Queen, now 95, hosted a Buckingham Palace reception also attended by her late husband Prince Philip and other royals.
The monarch revealed her passion for gymnastics again in 2017 when she presented the MBE to double Olympic champ Max
Whitlock. He said Her Majesty told him she “loved watching the gymnastics because the stuff that we do doesn’t seem possible”.
That was a reference to bodybending disciplines like the beam and acrobatics. Max, 28, said at the time: “It was pretty cool to hear the Queen say she likes the sport.”
The monarch, currently on light duties on doctors’ advice, regularly attends sporting events and is a horse racing enthusiast – and rider.
Tom’s revelation came on the Swedish chat show Skavlan.