For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. Politics Covid U. News World Opinion Business. Share this —. Follow NBC News. You can feel good for four years. And it comes down to one day. A few seconds, really. Daley has a quick-fire way of talking as soon as the thoughts come, and gives an interesting answer that seems to capture the paradox of Olympic competition.
We make a really big deal of the top three winners, and largely discard the rest of the field. All of them have put in the years. Some of them might just have had an off-day at the worst possible time. As well as the worry of it. As well as the excitement of it. As well as the devastation of it. T om Daley has long been a sort of Peter Pan figure in the public imagination, a small boy and an old soul. Aged seven, he was at the local pool when he saw older boys hurling themselves off the high board.
After a couple of years of diving lessons, Daley was entering tournaments and beginning to tailor his body for competition. He was 14 when he went to Beijing to compete in the pairs event, the youngest member of Team GB.
It hardly mattered that he finished eighth , because — look at that little kid with braces in his union jack trunks! He was a sensation in the UK, and returning to school after that summer was tricky. The news cameras were there. He did better there, socially and academically, and he credits a lot to sport. I travelled alone to Australia when I was I became independent. Sit down. About a decade ago, Daley says, he dealt with tragedy in his life by keeping on the go like this. His father, Rob, was a charismatic figure who went to most of the international diving tournaments, bringing along a big union jack to wave from the stands.
Still in his 30s, he was diagnosed with brain cancer. People lose people in so many different ways. Slowly, quickly, unexpectedly. Everyone deals with that differently. Then it happened, and I had a bronze medal around my neck, and I looked into the audience — Mum was there, my brothers, no Dad.
After London, he says, he went into a slump. I never wanted to dive again. Everything had been about the Olympics. It was: ! And then it was over, and everything after it looked unknown to me.
In , during his slump, Daley was on a visit to the US when he was invited to join a friend at a party in a Los Angeles restaurant. Locked eyes. He was 14 when he made a splash at his first Olympics , in , and at 15 he became a world champion.
This year in Tokyo, at his fourth Games, he finally won a longed-for gold , with his synchronised diving partner, Matty Lee. Now 27, he is married to the screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, with whom he has a three-year-old son. In a new autobiography, he describes struggles with injury, debilitating anxiety and coping with the death of his father, his biggest champion.
Which do you think has had a greater role in your success — hard work, luck or talent? What was your mindset when it came to each of your four Olympics? In , it was about the experience and the home crowd.
There was a performance goal, but I also knew that I had more Olympics in me. Going into , it felt like my best chance — I was in the best possible shape. When I went to , my perspective shifted and the most important thing for me was my family — knowing they love me and support me, regardless of how I do. How do you stay motivated for so many years? What techniques do you use to get into the zone on competition day?
How cool is that? What does a bad day look like for you? How do you stay optimistic? Working out, or just going for a walk, turns my mood around. Knitting can also help, or doing something with Robbie. On a bad training day, I used to spiral, but my coach told me to be like Peter Pan and fly out of it. One bad day is a day in a week, in a month, in a year, in a whole career of things that have also gone really well.
I try to acknowledge it and then move on. In a competition, each dive is an independent event. You just have to be in the moment. Have you ever dived from a board higher than 10 metres? Adam, UK Absolutely not.
Going up to those metre boards is terrifying. I went up there in Barcelona after the world championships and it was so high. I was like: how does somebody even jump off this? As a former teenage sports star, what is your message for Emma Raducanu as she begins her life in the spotlight? Allan, UK Stay true to who you are and keep working hard. What are your views on the sexualisation of athletes in sport, having been pushed as a poster boy and not wearing very much?
Milly, UK You have these body issues as an athlete. You wrote about this in your book. Is it fair to say you developed an eating disorder? Would you call it that?
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