Foursome, Tom!
HISTORY WITH MEDAL NO.4, BUT DALEY ADMITS: I’M NOT RETIRING YET... ENJOYING IT TOO MUCH
TOM DALEY has crushed talk of retirement after becoming the first British diver to win four Olympic medals.
Third place in yesterday’s individual high board competition gave him a bronze to add to the gold he took with Matty Lee in the 10-metre synchro a fortnight ago.
But, far from regarding it as a perfect way to end his fourGames Olympic career, Daley indicated he would use it as a springboard into the future.
“I love the sport and I feel like I’m just getting back into the swing of things,” he said, after finishing behind Chinese duo Cao Yuan and Yang Jian.
“I am definitely going to take a break over the next six months or so, as I’ve been doing it for 20 years, and my body needs a bit of a break.
“Over the next year, I’ll make a decision. But, at the moment, my body is doing all right, so I don’t know why I’d quit now.
“It’s nice to be an Olympic champion. When you have that feeling, you want to do it again.”
The combination of being healthy and happy in his private life – with husband Lance and son Robbie – has reinvigorated Daley, 27.
He could not quite match the brilliance of his Chinese rivals on this occasion, but that only served to highlight how good he and Lee had been to beat them in the synchro. That was the only one of eight diving gold medals China failed to win, ranks as one of the performances of these Games and left Daley understandably flying high.
“My husband said to me after Rio, when I was extremely disappointed, ‘Maybe you aren’t meant to win gold this time because your son is be able to fly and I just wish meant to watch you win an my dad was here to have seen Olympic gold medal’,” he said. me at these Olympics, winning
“When you feel so extremely two medals. He’d be jumping loved and 10 countries are up, he’d probably supported, it competing where be in the pool by takes so much LGBT is punishable now!” weight off your by death Rob, who died shoulders. from cancer in They’ve allowed me to fly 2011, got his son into diving higher than I ever thought I’d and supported him all over the world. When he passed away at the age of 40, Tom was 17.
How proud he would be not only of the diver Daley has become, but the way he stands up for himself and his beliefs.
In his medal moment here, Daley pointed out that “10 countries are competing at these Olympics where being LGBT is punishable by death”.
He added: “I feel extremely lucky to be representing Team GB, to be able to stand on the diving board as myself, with a husband and a son, and not worry about any ramifications.
“I just hope that seeing ‘out’ sportspeople is going to help people feel less alone, feel like they are valued and can achieve something.”