Tom Daley finishes SECOND alongside Noah Williams in diving

Tom Daley has revealed why his six-year-old son Robbie inspired him to make a U-turn on his decision to retire, after the Team GB diving icon secured a sensational silver.

Daley finished in second place alongside partner Noah Williams in the men’s synchronised 10m diving event at the Paris Olympics.

The Team GB man picked up his fifth medal in a record-breaking fifth appearance at the Games today as the pair impressed the judges at the Aquatic Centre, with China scooping up gold.

And after the event, the 30-year-old explained the impact his son had had on his move to return to the pool. 

He said: ‘It’s so special, this time last year deciding to come back and now to be here in Paris diving in front of my son who asked me to come back. 

‘It completes the set, I now have one of every colour.’

The diving star explained that Robbie was mainly excited to to get his hands on a piece of the Eiffel Tower – a feature of every medal at the Paris Games.

He added: ‘He’s six years old now and I think he might remember some of this. 

‘He’s excited to touch a bit of Eiffel Tower.’

Daley and Williams scored a nerve-calming 53.40 in the first required dive to go top of the leaderboard, before the Chinese pair of Junjie Lian and Hao Jang, favourites ahead of the event, wowed with a dive scored at 56.40.

In the second round, the duo remained consistent with a score of 51.60 taking their total to a solid 105.00, tied with Canada, while China stretched their lead to nine points.

As the participants moved on to the optional dives, the British pair showed their class, pulling off a majestic display to stretch clear of the Canadians and earn a score of 83.52 before a stunning fourth dive secured them a whopping 93.96.

As they got to the business end of the competition, Daley and Williams remained cool under the pressure with a dive worth a judge’s score of 87.72 in the fifth and penultimate round.

A Team GB silver looked close to a certainty going into the final dive but a solid Canadian dive, taking the rivals to a total score of 422.13, ramped up the importance of the Brits’ last display.

A show-stopping high-risk dive in the sixth round, earning Daley and Williams a score of 93.24, was enough to secure second, however, and Daley was able to celebrate yet another Olympic medal which looked unlikely 12 months ago.

The result comes after Scarlett Mew Jensen and Yasmin Harper sensationally secured bronze in the women’s 3m synchronised diving on Saturday with a score of 302.28 to become Team GB‘s first medalists, after a disastrous error from the Australian pair. 

It looked as if the duo had lost out going into the final round but a slip from Annabelle Smith saw the Australians score just 48.60 and fall short of the 58.68 they needed to overtake the Brits.

And the teammates described the ‘incredible’ feeling of winning an Olympic medal and becoming the first British women to achieve the feat since 1960, in an interview with the BBC. 

Harper said: ‘That’s what we think about because it has been a bit of a thing that the girls haven’t had a medal in so many years so coming into today we really wanted to put our best foot forward and show what we could do so to come away with the first medal in so long in the women’s diving is incredible, the perfect birthday present for tomorrow.’ 

On their reaction to the Australian blunder on the final dive, she said: ‘We knew that they had to falter a bit to feel the pressure on that dive and it meant that we came away with a bronze medal so we couldn’t be more pleased.’

Jensen added that they were in ‘denial’ after the dramatic end to the contest.

She said: ‘We thought they would have done it regardless but also just suspense massively.’

This was also the first time since 2004 that Team GB picked up a medal on the first day after the opening ceremony.  

Daley was spotted unwinding ahead of today’s big event by knitting a jumper while watching Saturday’s diving from the stands.

The Team GB man regularly knitted while poolside at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, including as he watched teammate Jack Laugher secure a bronze medal.

This time around in Paris, he is back to knitting cardigans as he gave his support to Harper and Mew.

Daley has showcased his knitting skills regularly, showing off several pieces such as a cream garment, adorned with the Team GB logo in 2021.

Fresh off of his Tokyo 2020 Olympic gold, Daley reunited with his husband Dustin Lance Black in Canada to knit again.

An adorable image showed him working on his latest project while sitting on a sofa with their son Robbie. 

Tom – who wore jeans and a grey tank top – captioned the sweet picture: ‘@dlanceblack capturing our movie night.’ 

Daley has previously spoken about the cathartic effect knitting has on his mindset during competitions, after setting up an Instagram page showing his fits called Made With Love By Tom Daley.

He said: ‘When we went to Japan for the test event I actually took my knitting with me and was doing it during my competition because sometimes there’s 45 minutes in between each dive so I’d sit there and knit and just take my mind off the competition completely. I’m obsessed!’

Daley made his Olympic debut as a 14-year-old in Beijing and won bronze at London 2012 and Rio.

At Tokyo 2020, he and Lee were not expected to win, with China the favourites, but they never dropped out of the top two and finished with a score of 471.81 following an exceptional forward four-and-a-half somersaults pike when the pressure was on in the final round.

China’s poor fourth-round dive let the Team GB pair take the lead and they never looked back, with the ROC claiming bronze.

‘It’s kind of unbelievable. I dreamt, as has Matty, since I started diving 20 years ago for this moment,’ said Daley.

‘I thought I was going to win an Olympic gold in Rio and that turned out the complete opposite by a long shot.

‘My husband said to me my story wasn’t finished and my son (Robbie) needed to be there to watch me win an Olympic gold medal.

‘I can say my son watched me become an Olympic champion, albeit on TV as they couldn’t be here. It’s such a great feeling.’

Lee added: ‘It felt crazy, obviously. In October 2018 I moved my whole life to London from Leeds. I was away from my family and friends, everyone. I had nothing in London. Our aim was to win an Olympic medal.

‘To be able to put the well-deserved gold medal around his neck was really special to me and I’m very very proud of him. Obviously it’s my dream to be a gold medallist, an Olympic gold medallist, and it’s great to be able to have won that with him.’ 

Daley’s husband Dustin Lance Black won the Best Original Screenplay Oscar for Milk in 2008 but Daley admits he does not know whether his medal or the Oscar will take pride of place at home.

He said: ‘My husband’s Oscar goes in the downstairs loo. People often mistake it for a loobrush. We had to get an Oscar loobrush because people were picking it up and realising it was an actual Oscar, not just a toy.

‘I don’t know why he does that, he says he doesn’t want to give it any more power than it needs. He’s done it and moving on to the next thing.’

After Tokyo glory he moved to the US with his family and effectively retired from diving. 

But he announced his return after a two-year break in 2023, following a trip to the Olympic museum.

‘I think I always had my mind set on five Olympic games,’ said Daley, ‘Phoenix, our youngest son, was born in Colorado Springs which I didn’t know at the time was where the Olympic and Paralympic city and training centre is and the museum.

‘And we went to the museum before Phoenix was born and at the end of the museum they had this video on what it means to be an Olympian.

‘I remember the video finishing and of course, I was there crying.

‘Lance looked over and thought, “Oh, God. I know what this means”.

‘Robbie was like, “Papa, I want to see you dive in the Olympics”. And that was that.’

Daley grew up in the media spotlight from a young age, winning gold at the European Championships as a 13-year-old in 2008, finishing seventh in the individual event at the Olympics, aged 14, and then coming out as gay in 2013, shortly after winning his first medal at the London Games.

Old footage shows a young, shy, Daley being greeted by a BBC camera crew outside the school gates.

He told the crew that his ambition was to win gold at the Olympics. Looking back, the adult Daley commented: ‘Who gave that kid the audacity to have dreams that big?’

Reflecting on his career, Daley said he felt like a ‘tortured soul’ and his Olympic ambitions were a way to disguise feeling as though he didn’t fit in.

He said: ‘As a kid growing up, feeling different and feeling like I didn’t quite fit in, I always felt like I had to overachieve to disguise the part of me that I always thought was considered wrong.

‘I know how I felt in that period of time and it was like a very tortured soul.

‘I struggled with all kinds of different things when it came to going away from home and being away like from my parents, going to unfamiliar territory.

‘I was absolutely awful at staying away from home. I used to cry and never want to stay overnight without my parents.’

During his early career, Daley was supported by his father, Rob, who was diagnosed with a brain tumour and died in 2011, 14 months before the London Olympics.

‘My dad was hugely dedicated to all of his kids, but in particular around my time,’ Daley said.

‘There was nothing that he wouldn’t do if it was going to help either make me feel better in training and give me a better opportunity to be able to go and compete.

‘He was there for every competition and every training session, no matter what it was.

‘To know how much he sacrificed is very special.

‘I hope that he never regretted spending that time with me, travelling the world and getting to see those competitions.

‘Now, as a parent, I feel like I have to live by his example on that as well. I so wish that he got to see me win an Olympic medal.’