British Olympic champion Tom Daley had been away from diving for two years when a recent trip to the Olympic and Paralympic Museum in Colorado Springs made the 29-year-old realize he’s not done with the sport just yet.
While watching an inspirational Olympic video, Daley broke down crying because “he hadn’t grieved diving.” Then his 5-year-old son, Robbie, told him, “Papa, I want to see you dive at the Olympics.”
“That has kind of lit a new flame and fire inside me to want to see where this goes,” Daley said in a YouTube video released on Saturday. “I don’t know where this is going to go. I’ve not been ready to let go of diving yet. So the journey begins.
“Paris 2024 is definitely a goal,” added Daley, who has won Olympic, world, European, and Commonwealth titles throughout his decorated career. “I don’t know if it’s going to be possible, but you never say never.”
If Daley does come back to qualify for Paris 2024, it would be his fifth Olympics. He made his debut at Beijing 2008 at just 14 years old, the youngest British athlete in any sport. After winning individual world titles on the 10-meter platform in 2009 and 2017, he claimed his first Olympic gold two summers ago in Tokyo on the synchronized platform with Matty Lee. The pair upset the reigning world champions from China by only a point, preventing China from pulling off a complete diving sweep at the Tokyo Olympics.
Daley added his second Olympic bronze medal on the individual platform in Tokyo, becoming the first British diver ever to win four Olympic medals, but he hasn’t competed since then. In March, Daley and his husband, Dustin Lance Black, welcomed their second child, Phoenix Rose Black-Daley.
Arguably the most famous diver in history, Daley has built his success on the platform into a lucrative away-from-the-pool status. He has 3.2 million followers on Instagram, which is a similar number to Michael Phelps, and has almost 1.2 million subscribers on his YouTube channel.
This might explain why:
Tokyo 2020
Budapest world championships 2022
Yang Jian 515.551
Rikuto Tamai 488.002
Yang Hao 485.453
Fukuoka world championoships 2023
Cassiel Rousseau 520.851
Lian Junjie 512.352
Yang Hao 504.003
You could see that men 10m platform standard has gone downhill significantly.
If he did not retire after Tokyo he would have won the last two men 10m platform comfortably with daylight to spare.
Incidentally QUAN Hongchan compiled the greatest series of women platform diving ever with a score of 466.20. She would have finished sixth in men platform diving at the same olympics.
Wonder if he is planning on diving solo or synchro?
Obviously solo. He had already won the synchro in Tokyo so why bother to do it again.
He will have seen the Chinese weakness in his premiere event
Very exciting news! Wish him the best in his comeback.