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Daley eyeing home glory

By Lei Lei (China Daily)
Updated: 2011-03-31 07:57

Thomas Daley of England competes in the men's 10m platform diving finals at the Dr SP Mukherjee Aquatics Complex in New Delhi on October 13, 2010. Daley is expected to win a medal at the London Olympic Games next year. Prakash Singh / Agence France-Presse

Young British talent is working hard to improve his consistency and introduce new dives en route to a London 2012 gold medal, Lei Lei writes

For one so young, Thomas Daley sure holds a lot of records. In June 2004, a month after his 10th birthday, the English diving wunderkind won the platform competition in the National Junior (under 18) group, making him the youngest winner of that event. In January 2008, he won the 10m platform crown at the British Championships to become the youngest winner of the senior British 10m title.

Soon after, Daley and his partner, Blake Aldridge, won bronze in the synchronized competition at the 2008 FINA Diving World Cup. Their score was a British record, and Daley became the youngest male medalist in a world diving event.

Then, in March 2008, Daley became the youngest person to win a gold medal at the European Championships, held in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. The previous youngest winner was Scottish swimmer Ian Black, who won a European gold in 1958 at the age of 17.

At the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, he was Britain's youngest competitor, the youngest competitor of any nationality outside the sport of swimming, and the youngest to participate in a final.

Now, the young sensation's goal is to gain glory for his country at the London Olympics in 2012 - and this time he will be under intense pressure from an expectant home crowd.

"The only medal I haven't got is an Olympic one. It's definitely something I want," Daley told China Daily on the sidelines of the FINA World Series' Beijing stop last week.

"There is a lot of pressure, but you just need to make sure you go out there and focus on the things you need to do and enjoy the atmosphere," Daley said.

Despite shouldering increasingly heavy expectations over the past three years, Daley has grown impressively - both physically and mentally.

He has sprouted from a less than 1.55m boy into a young man who stands over 1.75m.

"It went up quite quickly. I grew up and had to deal with getting taller, which makes dives more difficult," said the 16-year-old.

"Then I became stronger. I have also gained a lot of experience going to a lot of competitions as well."

Daley learned to swim at the age of three and took up diving at seven. The risky sport didn't scare the boy.

"It is just something I really enjoyed. I started swimming at a young age and then I started diving. I just loved it from the very beginning," he said.

"It's dangerous, but it's fun at the same time. Every time it's scary. But it's fun because it never gets boring. The more you do it the easier it gets. I still get scared now and then and that's the fun part about it.

"It's not boring. It's something I've done from a young age. I've got used to it and it's part of my routine. I love it. As soon as I stop loving it, I will stop doing it."

Drawing the diving world's attention since 2008. Daley reached a personal peak at the 2009 Rome World Championships where he unexpectedly grabbed the gold medal in men's 10m platform, beating Chinese favorites Qiu Bo and Zhou Luxin.

"It was incredible because I worked so hard. I dived consistently over the year." Daley said of his worlds victory.

"Everything came together at the right time. With my (degree of) difficulty, I needed someone to miss a dive, so I would be able to win. I did my dives and put the pressure on the others and they failed to handle it."

As the Shanghai World Championships approach in July, Daley is cautious about his chances of retaining the title.

"My goal at the Shanghai World Championships is to be in the top five and qualify for the Olympics. That's my main goal," he said. "At the moment the main thing for me is to do my new dives very well, but it would be amazing to retain the title."

To achieve the ultimate goal at the London Games next year, Daley has been practicing new dives and consistency is what he is seeking now.

"When you learn a dive, it takes a long time for you to master it. For me, the world series and everything this year is making sure that I can practice them in the competitions and hopefully the more I do, the better they will become by the time London 2012 comes around. I should be able to do them consistently," he said.

"I'm going to improve a lot before going to the Olympic Games in 2012. I just have to make sure I work on consistency. Like this year, I just have to make sure I can do the dives in the competitions and then, after the World Championships, I will be working really hard to do them consistently."

China's record score holder Qiu, and Australia's Olympic champion, Matthew Mitcham, are the main rivals standing in Daley's path to glory in London.

"I'd love to win the Olympic gold, but the Chinese are very strong. Their records are up over 600 points," he said.

"It's going to be very tough, but I have to go out there, try my best and see what happens on the day. I also have to think about my partnership with (Olympic silver medalist) Peter Waterfield in the synchro as well. That's an event we can hopefully do well in.

"I can only imagine how (Mitcham) felt at that time (Beijing 2008) because becoming an Olympic champion is any sportsperson's ultimate dream. I can't imagine how it is going to feel in front of my home crowd, but I would just love the chance to be able to do everything in my power to get near that goal."

(China Daily 03/31/2011 page23)