My Story

by Daley, Tom

  We got into the pool and were splashing each other. She tried to make it as normal as possible so it wasn’t awkward. I kept wondering what I should talk to her about but she kept me chatting and laughing.

  All the way through I was thinking of ways to ask her if I could take some pictures of her for my GCSE project. I particularly wanted one inspired by the original portrait by David Hockney. I was rehearsing it in my mind to make sure it didn’t sound creepy. I had planned to say, ‘Kate, I am doing a GCSE photography project. Would you be able to help with doing some photos?’

  In the end I was like, ‘Kate, can I take some photos of you, please?’ I could hardly get the words out.

  ‘Yeah, sure.’

  Bruce Weber was happy – and wanted to take photos of me taking pictures of her. I felt really bad telling her what to do. In the end I said, ‘To be honest I’m not going to tell you what to do because you know far more than I do.’

  TONIA PRETENDING TO BE IN A HAIR AD IN ANOTHER ONE OF MY COURSEWORK PICTURES.

  SHE WAS BRILLIANT AND IN ONE PHOTO BRUCE TOLD ME TO HOLD HER HAND, BECAUSE IT WOULD GIVE HIM AN EXCELLENT SHOT. WE DID ABOUT FIVE TO TEN MINUTES OF PHOTOS AND I FEATURED ONE PAGE OF THOSE PHOTOS IN MY COURSEWORK.

  A couple of weeks later, the renowned photographer David Bailey also took some pictures of me for UK Vogue for a feature called ‘Class of 2010’, with other rising stars like actress Claudia Renton, campaigner Iris Andrews and model Alice Dellal. It felt quite strange suddenly being in a celebrity world that wasn’t just about sport – but exciting and interesting too. It was also great being shot by David Bailey – it’s what I used to call Dad when he took bad pictures!

  The next week I had a few social events. This was a great chance to catch up with Nikita, Sophie and the gang. I went to my cousin Brooke’s christening with my family and a few days later to Sophie’s birthday meal, followed by Alex’s sixteenth birthday party.

  I really enjoyed the filming of A Question of Sport in London, which I did at the end of October. I do not really follow football but am more interested in the other Olympic sports and tennis. I was on Phil Tufnell’s team along with Andy Cole. Our team won!

  Around this time I also found out I would be sitting some of my GCSE exams early so was working very hard preparing for those. There was quite a big block of time for me to get some schoolwork under my belt before the end of the year.

  Training-wise, I was also putting the time in as I was starting to learn my new dive, the twister – back two and a half somersaults, two and a half twists – which had a 3.6 tariff. It took me a long time to get it ready for competition. With every new dive, it’s just a case of getting your head round it. It felt like it needed so much energy to jump up to get all the moves in. We talked through it, visualized it, did it on the harness, off the lower boards, then upwards towards the 10m. There is lots of repetition and it’s like piecing a puzzle together. I wanted to make sure I hammered it in. I knew I needed to do it slowly, as when I rush, there is much more potential for everything to go wrong.

  I FELT SO NERVOUS IN TRAINING; I BECOME COMFORTABLE WITH ONE SET OF DIVES AND THEN HAVE TO PUSH MYSELF AGAIN. EVERY TIME I DO A DIFFERENT MOVE, IT’S LIKE TAKING A LEAP INTO THE UNKNOWN. BUT I TOLD MYSELF, AS I DO NOW, THAT THE SCHEMAS ARE ALL THERE WORKING. I HAD TO SWITCH OFF AND LET MY BODY DO IT.

  Around then there was some stuff in the press about Laura Robson and me. I have never met her and it was the first time that the press had tried to pair me off with someone other than Tonia! I follow her on Twitter and she follows me, but I have never met her and normally see her when she is pulling loads of faces while playing, in the same way she has probably seen me gurning while diving. She said she was going to the Australian Open and I tweeted her saying, ‘Good luck x’. And then all the newspapers said, ‘He wrote good luck and signed off with a passionate kiss’! Doesn’t everyone sign off with a kiss these days? I thought it was really funny.

  In December I won BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year again, which was brilliant. It was the first year Burberry had dressed me so that felt pretty special, too. The tyre blew out on the way up to the ceremony in Sheffield and we had to stop on the hard shoulder of the motorway. We were sat on the bank and I was really annoyed that we might miss the awards but the RAC rescued us in time. It is always amazing to go to ceremonies and meet the people you see on TV. If you are someone in sport you are there, so it was great to see everyone. Ellie Simmonds and Amir Khan gave me my award.

  I also filmed a video for Sport Relief with James Corden. I’m a massive fan of Gavin and Stacey and he was starring as Smithy in a sketch in which he was nominated as ‘coach of the year’. Part of the sketch was us doing a synchronized dive off the 10m board. When James took his clothes off and put his Speedos on, we did a belly bounce and everyone was laughing. He really does take the mick out of himself!

  The first hurdle was getting him up onto the 10m platform; he was absolutely petrified. Initially he would not even jump off 3 metres and kept saying, ‘I can’t do it, I can’t do it. I’m terrified.’ After a good ten minutes, he jumped.

  ‘I don’t know how you keep doing it and keep doing it,’ he said as we traipsed up 5m and then 7m, where he spent fifteen minutes on each board moaning about how high it was. Finally, he went straight up to the top board, where it took forty minutes for him to jump.

  It was one take only – he refused to practise. He gave me a knowing look and we jumped. He screamed the whole way down and yelled:

  ‘WHAT was that? You keep letting me down!’ I found it so hard not to laugh, so I put my mouth just under the water to try and stop myself.

  After our shoot he was asking about my diving and he suggested I start doing synchro with the Chinese as a sure-fire plan to get gold all the time. I had to explain that it does not work like that! He also asked me whether the Olympic Village was like university and a ‘giant sex fest’. I told him I didn’t know!

  That year we spent Christmas at home. Our grandparents came over – it is all about the food and family. I love turkey but I hate Christmas pudding so I have chocolate yule log instead. We play games, watch TV and every year normally have a round of Play Your Cards Right. It starts with the youngest person, who puts a pound in the pot, and you could end up with £25 at the end.

  2010 started with a roast dinner at my grandparents Rose and Dink’s house and just a few days later it was back to school to face some mock and proper GCSE exams. I did mocks in English Literature and Physics and then sat the real GCSE Biology, Chemistry and Physics exams a few weeks later. In between these exams I opened a new leisure pool in Poole and did a diving session with James Cracknell, Olympic rowing champion, for the Telegraph. Again, they wanted a shot of us doing synchro off the top platform. After a few dives on the lower boards, we went up to 10m, and as James peered over the edge he said, ‘There are two ways down: one hurts your ego and the other just hurts! I’m a lot taller than you. From where I’m standing, this is a 12m board.’

  ‘Just push up on your toes and lean forwards,’ I told him. I counted us in and we dived. It was weird doing a straight dive – it was like I had nothing to think about, rather than the normal thousand things. James slightly over-rotated and when the photographer asked if we could do it again, James gave him such a look that he said, ‘I think I got it.’ We all laughed.

  In February I had my first competition of the year, the British Gas National Cup, which took place in Sheffield’s Pond’s Forge. I was the only diver ever to hold the titles of British, European and World Champion at the same time – and this was the first of the titles I needed to defend as well as the first time I did the twister in competition. It had gone well in training and I was pleased to be showcasing it in front of a home crowd but I had strained my shoulder, so wasn’t on top form. Despite that, I taped it up to give it extra support and hoped for the best. Mum, Dad, William and Ben were in the audience, along with Grandma Rose, Grandma Jenny, Granddad Doug and Granddad Dink
. My twister earned some 8s, which was great, but because I had been practising my harder dives so intensely, I had not been doing my older dives as much and I over-rotated my armstand back triple, piked. It takes a long time to get yourself in the right mental space to do a competition, and I think because I went back to some of my older list it confused me slightly. Pete dived brilliantly with seven perfect 10s en route to take the first place with 523.65 points. I finished in second with 483.60. I was really disappointed and frustrated with my silly mistakes but knew I had to take the positives away from it. Diving is an on-the-day sport – that’s just the nature of it. It really gave me a kick up the backside.

  I felt very deflated but talked to the team about whether we could name a diver who had successfully defended all their titles – or, indeed, anyone in any sport. So I had learned what it took to get to the top but also was learning what it was like to come back down again. The feeling of going in both directions was part of my experience, I guess, and I had to focus on the list of favourites – having fun and enjoying myself – and hope that the results would take care of themselves.

  Setbacks and Triumphs

  ‘IT IS ALWAYS JUST A CASE OF PRACTICE, PRACTICE AND MORE PRACTICE TO TRY AND DRILL IT DOWN. THE FRONT FOUR AND A HALF WAS THE LAST DIVE I MIGHT EVER HAVE TO LEARN OFF 10M, WHICH FELT STRANGE BUT MADE ME DETERMINED TO GET IT RIGHT. FOR A LONG TIME I DIDN’T THINK IT WOULD BE THE DIVE FOR ME.’

  AT A LOT OF MY BIG EVENTS, I WAS FOLLOWED BY THE BBC FILM CREW FOR THE DOCUMENTARY THEY WERE MAKING, ‘THE DIVER AND HIS DAD’. THERE WERE JANE THE PRODUCER, THE SOUND MAN AND THE CAMERAMAN.

  They also came to some sessions when I was learning the twister, took some footage of the family at home and planned to follow me through all my major competitions that year. I guess by then I had been under the spotlight for a while, and after the first few sessions forgot the cameras were there.

  In February, Dad and I jetted to Abu Dhabi for the Laureus World Sports Awards, recognizing sportspeople around the world. I was nominated for the Laureus World Breakthrough of the Year Award along with F1 driver Jenson Button, cyclist Mark Cavendish, Argentinian tennis player Juan Martin del Potro, golfer Ji Yai Shin and German football club Vfl Wolfsburg. It was really glamorous and there were so many amazing sports stars there. Jenson won the award – and when he collected his cup he said he’s been around for ages, which made everyone giggle.

  Dad and I were there for a few days and we were put up in the Emirates Palace, which was awesome. The building is a kilometre long if you walk from one end to the other and it has a private beach. During our stay, we got to be passengers in the F1 Yas Marina circuit car that sets the pace. It was great fun – we were really chucked around as we sped round the track. Dad was complaining that he could not walk, saying he felt sick! Hugh Grant was at the party but I didn’t get the chance to say hello, though he came up to us at the airport when we were on our way home, shook my hand and told me to keep up the diving and that he would be watching in 2012.

  Arriving home I picked up my GCSE results for my science exams and I got three A*s, which I was delighted with. I celebrated the following week at the Plymouth Diving Club Dinner and Dance, where everyone let their hair down and had fun outside a training environment.

  Just a couple of days later I was on my way to Qingdao in China for the first of the FINA World Series events that year. I was delayed getting out there by a few days because my visa didn’t go through in time. In this event I was doing my new dives and scored 520.35 but just missed out on a medal, finishing in fourth place. Sascha scored 541.50 to strike bronze behind Qiu Bo and Zhou Luxin in first and second place, respectively. I was still pleased because it was my best score of the year so far but it just made me realize that everyone else was pushing themselves harder and harder and that I needed to keep working on my new list to make sure I kept pace with them. It also meant that if I dropped one of my more difficult dives, because of my higher tariffs I would not be completely out of the running.

  In February it was confirmed that Dad’s cancer was back and the tumour was showing signs of regrowth. He had been going for regular scans to make sure everything was OK – and I knew that he’d been having some more panic attacks, so they had increased the steroids, but he didn’t have any major symptoms that I knew about. I always thought it was a case of sorting out his medication and him getting well again and the tumour shrinking. I never for a million years thought it could beat him, you never think it will happen to your family. He still took me to training even when he was tired, and behaved just like normal, joking at every opportunity. When anyone asked him how he felt, he just said, ‘About nineteen!’ and then laughed. He said he wasn’t in pain and tried his hardest to show William, Ben and me that he wasn’t ill. I never, ever saw him complain or be miserable.

  One day I went to see him have a scan – I told him he looked like Homer Simpson in the MRI machine. We played him some Beach Boys while the doctors were looking at the scans. I wanted to ask where the tumour was because I was interested but the pictures were flashing up so quickly and I could see that Grandma Rose was getting a bit upset, so I left it.

  It was decided that rather than have another operation he would undergo a course of chemotherapy a few months later, which involved drugs through a drip and lots of tablets. I know now that they made him really sick but when he had it I was away for training camps and competitions, so I never saw him ill. On the phone he was always full of beans, telling me the news and what he had been doing.

  When I was back in the UK, I did a photoshoot for our local newspaper with a young boy called Archie Barton. Archie is four years old and a few years ago he suffered from meningitis and lost both his legs and some fingers due to septicaemia. His parents have started a fundraising campaign called Archie’s Story to help raise enough money to buy prosthetic legs for him. His mum saw my dad one day at the pool and told him about the appeal, and as soon as I heard about it I wanted to get on board and help. I wanted to do what I could to help raise awareness as I think it’s very important to do what we can to help others. He is a lovely and very bubbly little boy and I took him to our local swimming pool. I’m just glad I can help in situations like this.

  The next part of the World Series was in Veracruz in Mexico. This competition didn’t go as well as I’d hoped and a few bad dives meant I didn’t qualify for the final round. It was even more frustrating that the Sheffield part of the World Series was cancelled due to the volcanic ash cloud so we did the competition in Veracruz again as all the divers were there. I was in second place all the way through then missed one of my dives and finished in fourth place. It was disappointing but I was more determined to train and practise even harder for the next competition back at the pool at home. It did take us a long time to get back to Plymouth because of the ash cloud, as we had to go from Veracruz to Mexico City, then to Canada, Paris and finally London, which took three days of planes, trains and cars!

  I was continuing to learn new dives – a back three and a half somersaults piked position and the front four and a half, which everyone was learning for the forthcoming competitions. It is always just a case of practice, practice and more practice to try and drill it down. The front four and a half was the last dive I might ever have to learn off 10m, which felt strange but made me determined to get it right. For a long time I didn’t think it would be the dive for me.

  It was a quieter couple of months, which gave me a chance to catch my breath and focus on school and training. I started May with two days of GCSE Photography exams. May is a busy month for family birthdays as we had my youngest brother Ben’s eleventh birthday on the 12th, my sixteenth on the 21st and William’s fourteenth on the 30th. On my big day, we had a party with my family and friends and my Aunty Marie made this amazing cake, which was a little man made of icing sugar on the top of a high platform. After I had blown my candles out I made him jump off the platform into the water, which was made of jelly. Sophie and Nikita bought me a g
oldfish, which I called Sikita after them.

  My school friends, my brothers and I also went zorbing. It’s basically where you roll down a hill in an orb, which is made of transparent plastic. It was like being in a hamster ball and definitely something completely different.

  A few days later I was photographed by Bettina von Zwehl for a project with the National Portrait Gallery called ‘Roads to 2012’, a series of pictures of athletes, politicians and engineers and all the people working behind the scenes to make the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics happen. She took the picture on Bovisand beach – Dad suggested it because it’s my favourite beach and it’s really hidden away and peaceful. Launching it I spoke about the inspirational people in my life, like Sir Steve Redgrave and Tanni Grey-Thompson.

  It was Dad’s fortieth birthday and we celebrated with a meal. We bought him a helicopter flying lesson, which he loved. Going out with him was always so amusing – at that time the World Cup was on so when we drove around he thought it was hilarious to blow his vuvuzela at random people out of the window.

  In preparation for the Europeans, I was training for six hours a day.

  One day I was training as normal and as I was taking off for a dive and getting into a tuck shape I got cramp in my boob and in my right hip flexor. I was spinning round but I could not stay tucked, because it was so painful, and I landed upright but I was loose in my back.

  I really stung and was in agony. I had to pull out of the British Diving Championships in Sheffield at the end of June and did rehabilitation work and physiotherapy sessions twice a day. I still went to the competition to watch and have treatment, but I was annoyed because it meant that I missed my school prom. Thankfully, the work to repair the injury was a success and a few weeks later I was back training as normal again.