I watched Tom Daley grow up from bullied Speedo-kid to Britain's golden great: Mail Sport's JONATHAN McEVOY pays tribute to the retiring legend after sharing some of his proudest moments
- Tom Daley announced his retirement from diving after the Paris Olympics
Tom Daley, the Olympic champion diver, has announced his retirement. Now aged 30, the kid who grew up in the eyes of the world and became an industry in his own right, delivered the news via Vogue.
The announcement, and its placement in that glossy magazine’s online edition, had all the trappings of the celebrity he has become, and who can begrudge him that?
In the years leading up to the London Olympics, I was practically the ‘Tom Daley Correspondent’ for this newspaper. We had selected him as one of our ‘Magnificent Seven’, the stellar hopefuls we were following and backing all the way to their home Games, and reporting on that was my day job. None of the other aspirants had quite the stardust of Tom.
It would be wrong of me to claim close intimacy to him, but it is undeniable to say that I shared some of the biggest moments of his young life. I visited the very nice, very unremarkable three-bedroom house he was raised in in Plymouth, speaking to his mother Debbie and his late father Rob, as well as to Tom. My mind turns back, first, to Rob and one of the most moving scenes I have witnessed as a sportswriter. Rob called himself ‘Taxi Dad’, driving his ambitious boy around the leisure centres of England as Tom transformed himself into a phenomenon. Rob clocked up 100,000 miles-plus in the endeavour.
Now it is easy to say, as I wrote from Paris only the other week, that every belly-flopper is berated with the words: ‘Who do you think you are... Tom Daley?’
Tom Daley has announced that he will be retiring from diving after winning his fifth Olympic medal in Paris
Daley's father Rob (left) called himself 'Taxi Dad' and drove his son to leisure centres around England during the early years of the diver's career
The diving sensation tragically lost his dad Rob, aged 40, to brain cancer when he was only 17
Stirling Moss, an immortal of motor racing, who died earlier in the Covid lockdown years, had more enduring fame for sure. Not too many others became a noun — to do a ‘Daley’ — which tells us that he has transported himself into a one-man emblem of his otherwise off-the-highway sport.
Diving? Who knew or cared about it in the mainstream before Tom put it dead centre on the map of a wider consciousness?
Going back to Tom and Rob. In his final interview, while suffering from a second brain tumour that had stolen from him the use of his left side, Rob told me that he would travel to Sheffield in 2011 regardless of his terminal illness.
He was in a wheelchair and, as always, took with him a video camera to record his boy. He carried a Union flag into the arena, again as usual. I shall never forget Tom catching sight of his father in the viewing gallery and going up there to throw his arms around him.
I have always thought that Tom knew his father would never see him dive again. If so, he was right. A month later, in May 2011, Rob Daley, a successful electrician by trade, died. He was 40.
Daley was cheered on at the Aquatics Centre in Paris by his mum Debbie (left), husband Dustin Lance Black (right) and their children
Daley has also been spotting knitting inside the Aquatics Centre in Paris as he watched his team-mates compete
Daley grew up in the eyes of the world and became an industry in his own right, before announcing his retirement, aged 30
Daley made his name at the Beijing Games in 2008, aged 14, the second youngest British Olympian in history
A year later, Daley would go on to win the men's individual platform at the 2009 World Championships
Tom had turned 17 a few days before, and suddenly he was the head of the household, so to speak, the eldest of three brothers, though his mother was the matriarch.
She was there in Paris two weeks ago yesterday when Tom won silver in the 10-metre synchronised competition with his diving partner Noah Williams. All questions were for Tom. Poor Noah, a silent assassin in another man’s story.
Daley made his name at the Beijing Games in 2008, aged 14, the second youngest British Olympian in history, only to finish last. He claimed the world title in Rome the following year.
At London 2012 he was — very generously — allowed a second attempt on his final dive on his way to bronze, having been distracted by the boisterous crowd.
Rio 2016, in his supposed pomp, he took another bronze alongside Daniel Goodfellow. But at Tokyo — gold, aged 27. What a day, for a boy who had been bullied as the Speedo-kid at school, as he finally beat the Chinese, the thorn in his side for as long as he could remember.
Daley would return to win bronze at the 2012 London Games, his first Olympic medal
Alongside Dan Goodfellow (left) Daley (right) would win in the men's Synchronised 10m platform at the Rio Olympic games
But it was in Tokyo where Daley would go on to clinch gold, alongside Matty Lee in the men's synchronised platform
It was a monumental day for the boy (left) who had been bullied at school by his peers
The Chinese were coached within an inch of their lives in various unforgiving training camps. The Chinese choreography was sure to be of the highest echelon. But Daley and Matty Lee beat them at their own game.
How he confounded GB’s performance director Alexei Evangulov, who said, not without reason: ‘Tom is in danger of becoming Britain’s Anna Kournikova,’ referring, of course, to the Russian tennis player who appeared more interested in modelling and fame than serve and volley.
By 2013, Daley was out as a gay man, revealed via YouTube. He is now married to Dustin Lance Black, an Oscar-winning screenwriter. They live in Los Angeles with their two children, Robbie, named after Tom’s dad, and Phoenix.
Daley, chosen as a flag-bearer at the Olympic closing ceremony, told Vogue of his final fling in Paris: ‘It was emotional at the end, up there on the platform, knowing it was going to be my last competitive dive.
Daley is now married to Dustin Lance Black, an Oscar-winning screenwriter and the pair live in Los Angeles with their two children
Daley had also been chosen as a flag bearer alongside Helen Glover (left) for the 2024 games
On his decicision to retire from diving, the British Olympian said: 'It's the right time to call it a day'
‘But I have to make the decision at some point, and it feels like the right time.
‘It’s the right time to call it a day.’
And so a remarkable, glory-filled chapter in his life has ended.
