It hasn’t always been easy for the medal-winning diver supporting the ‘I am Team GB’ grassroots scheme
Bullying, body dysmorphia and best friends: Matty Lee’s path to Tokyo gold
There’s nothing quite like the feeling of hopping into the water from a 10-metre platform – take it from Matty Lee. “It’s unique,” says the 23-year-old. “You go in like a hot knife through butter.”
He should know. Last week, he won Olympic gold in the men’s synchronised 10-metre dive, with Tom Daley. Lee, who’s backed by UK Sport’s National Lottery funding, now wants to use his success to encourage others into sport – and is a vocal supporter of a new “I am Team GB” grassroots initiative. Lee first dipped his toe into diving aged seven, after seeing his older brother try it. Soon, he’d signed up for afterschool practice and summer camp. Aged 10, he watched on TV as Daley, then 14, competed in Beijing.
But his love of what was perceived as a “feminine sport” made him the target of bullies in suburban Leeds. He was mocked for wearing Speedos. It worsened in 2013, after Daley publicly came out. “Schools were brutal at that time. Horrible words were thrown around. Everyone would call me gay,” he says. (He is straight, as it happens.)
Diving can come with a brutal focus on your weight, Lee admits. “Our bodies are literally on show. We wear tiny trunks. There’s body dysmorphia. It’s kept quiet a little bit. I’ll look in the mirror and go, ‘Oh my God, what the hell, I’ve had a Five Guys [burger] and I can see it, and I’m not happy about it’. Realistically, I don’t look any different. But I think I do.”
In 2018, he partnered with Daley. “Our friendship is so pure and real. Tom knows exactly how to deal with me if I’m having a bad day, and I know almost everything about him, too.”
Ahead of Tokyo, Lee was warned that the coverage would focus on Daley (as his 2016 partner Dan Goodfellow found). He was, and remains, unfazed. “Tom is a household name. I know I’ve done 50 per cent of the work,” he says. And [Tom’s] one of the most down-to-earth people I know.”