Tom Daley—the 30-year-old British diver who, remarkably, has competed in five Olympic Games—is officially retiring.
The news arrives on the heels of a stellar final showing in Paris: Alongside diving partner Noah Williams, Daley nabbed silver in the men’s 10-meter synchronised platform. The medal, Daley’s fifth after bronzes in London and Rio de Janeiro, plus a gold and a bronze in Tokyo, was more than just his last: It meant he’d “completed the colours,” he tells me with a grin. (Another feather in his Paris cap: He was chosen as a flag bearer for Great Britain during the riverine opening ceremony.)
We’re sitting in an anteroom at Soho House Paris, where Daley has met with me—extremely punctually, it’s worth noting; he appeared at 2:00 p.m. on the dot—to discuss his milestone news and exemplary career.
“It feels very, very surreal,” he says. “I felt so incredibly nervous going into this, knowing it was my last Olympics. There was a lot of pressure and expectation. I was eager for it to be done… but when I walked out, and saw my husband [Lance] and kids [Robbie and Phoenix] and my friends and family in the audience, I was like, You know what? This is exactly why I did this. I’m here, and no matter what happens in the competition itself, I’m going to be happy.
“It was emotional at the end, up there on the platform, knowing it was going to be my last competitive dive,” he continues. “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.”
After all, Daley, who was born in Plymouth, Great Britain, in 1994, has been diving since just about the turn of the millennium. He qualified for his first Games at the age of 14, competing in Beijing in 2008. There, Daley’s father, Robert Daley—who was deeply involved in and supportive of his son’s early career—was able to watch Tom compete. But Robert would die from brain cancer three years later. Ever since, Daley’s mother, Debbie, has remained a fixture at his events; in Paris, she could be seen cheering in the stands with Lance and her grandchildren.
Daley made global headlines when he came out as gay, via a YouTube video, in 2013. He felt it was necessary after a tabloid splashed out a baseless headline reading: “Tom Daley, ‘I’m Not Gay.’” (At that point, he had neither directly denied nor confirmed his sexuality publicly.) “It infuriated me that somebody would say that. I never wanted to be seen as lying or hiding from who I was,” Daley says.
He is pleased to see that now, “with every Olympics, there are more and more out athletes”—a big difference from a decade ago. “It’s powerful.” But he also knows well the specific, occasionally unwelcome responsibilities that come with representation. “I think there is a lot of pressure for when people do come out to be an activist and to be outspoken. And sometimes that’s just not in some people’s nature,” he says. “I think this might be part of the reason why possibly more people haven’t felt as comfortable with coming out. I also think that [the world of sport] is such a heteronormative space… lots of queer kids, when they’re younger, have this automatic feeling that they shouldn’t fit into sports, so they don’t pursue them. I hope we’ll see more in the future.”
Daley says that, back before that headline was written, he’d been asked why he thought he had such a large gay following. He replied, “Probably because I am half-naked all the time.” These days, his personal audience now reaches north of five million followers.
Plus, being a high-profile diver is instant internet catnip—their events are fast-paced and dazzling, ready-made for TikToks and Reels—and Daley is confident and knowingly playful in his digital presence. He seems very comfortable in his own skin.
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“Really,” he says, laughing, “being in trunks all of the time, that’s my work attire. There aren’t many people that wear more clothes to bed than they do to work.”
We shift away from the conference room at this point in our chat, and head upstairs to Soho House’s terrace. Daley is wearing a pool-blue Fendi set, and he’s brought along some of the things he’s knitted for this Games. Anyone who follows him online also knows that he’s quite accomplished at yarn-work; photos of him knitting during competitions have gone viral for years.
In 2021, he garnered enough popularity for his then hobby that he launched Made With Love, a knit-focused clothing and accessory line. He is a fan of fashion—attending, for example, the Met Gala with Moschino a few years ago—and craft, and has produced not only a statement jumper for Paris, but also a “medal-carrying croissant bag. It feels a little bit like Loewe,” he says, grinning.
One gets the sense that Daley is looking forward to what’s ahead, once the flurry of the Games dies down. Of course, he’ll reminisce on his competing days, including some of the more physically challenging moments, such as suffering from the “twisties” (the same disorienting mental block that Simone Biles went through in Tokyo) during the London Games in 2012.
“That was incredibly scary. When you don’t have that orientation,” he says, “you know how badly you can hurt yourself. I’ve had stress fractures in my shins. I’ve torn my tricep. I’ve had a fold in my back. I’ve broken my hand. I’ve coughed up blood. I’ve hit my head on the platform twice. When you get lost in the air, these things go through your mind.” (Not only did he pull through, however, but he also eventually debuted a new dive because of it: a forward three-and-a-half somersault with one twist, in which Daley “flicks out”—a move his husband nicknamed “the firework.”)
From today, though, the pressure is gone, his dreams realised in full. Next up is what’s most exciting—Daley’s new leap, so to speak, now that he’s hung up his shammy.
For one, his children are growing up fast. Robbie, who actually convinced Daley to come back for Paris after Tokyo (when the diver first considered walking away), is entering the first grade in Los Angeles—and has himself jumped off 3-meter-high diving boards since the age of four. Daley tries to coach him, but “he very much does not like to be told what to do.”
There are also media, entertainment, and sartorial ventures to consider. In Paris, Daley stayed through the duration of the Games as a pundit for Eurosport. He says he’s interested in something in front of the camera, maybe.
“I’ve also enrolled in a class, a course at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (FIDM) in Los Angeles, to be able to learn how to sew,” he adds. “I knit and I crochet, but sewing will just add a whole different level of knowledge as to how to construct things. I’ve actually designed a couple of pieces of underwear that I’m going to be launching, and then I’m also hoping to launch a swimwear project next year.” Daley says he’d love to scale businesses from these ideas, but is content, for now, with Made With Love.
I ask him if he’ll dive recreationally. He hesitates. “I don’t know,” he says. “It’s hard to dive that way. You need the proper setup and pool. People don’t have that at their homes.” Indeed, everything about this next stage in his life—being “a ‘dover’ instead of a diver,” as he puts it—will require some recalibrating.
“I’ve spent my whole life doing this,” Daley says, as Paris’s afternoon light bounces off of Soho House’s pool and catches the facets in his silver medal, which splinters the beams into a pinwheel. “Actually being able to let go of it—it’s going to be hard. And it’s going to be a major adjustment to figure out how my days are structured.”
But his outlook is positive—as bright as the wedges of sun dancing on his hardware. “I would love,” he says, “for people to remember me for being a person that persevered, who persisted and didn’t give up on his dream until he was able to achieve it.”
Then, he adds: “To currently be Britain’s most decorated diver… I feel so incredibly proud. When I look back, I’m really, genuinely satisfied with what I’ve done.”
This article was first published by Vogue.com.
