Tom Daley broke down in tears after he announced his retirement from Olympic diving in emotional scenes upon Team GB’s return from Paris.
The normally talkative five-time Olympian struggled to find his words as television cameras stopped him after arriving by Eurostar at London St Pancras.
“It’s hard to talk about,” he told the BBC before pausing to force back tears, adding that it felt “overwhelming” to finally be calling it a day.
After composing himself, he then added: “It’s a lot, but I’m really happy with how everything’s gone. I just think it’s always hard when you say goodbye to your sport. Lots of things to process, but it’s the right time. This year felt like such a bonus. I got to compete in front of my family, my kids and I got to be flag bearer. Bucket list ticked off on every occasion.”
Daley’s crowning achievement was a gold in the 10m synchronised event alongside Matty Lee in Tokyo 2021. After fulfilling his lifetime goal, Daley took two years out of diving before being persuaded to return to the pool when his son Robbie, now aged six, said he wanted to see his father dive at an Olympic Games. Daley’s film director husband Dustin Lance Black, Robbie and their youngest son Phoenix were in attendance as he claimed silver in Paris alongside partner Noah Williams.
“I like to think they’re very proud of me,” he said, before joking about his emotions: “I didn’t realise I wouldn’t be able to actually speak. It’s not very like me. I am happy…it’s just hard to talk when you have loved something so much.”
Daley, 30, ends his career as one of the most instantly recognisable Team GB athletes in modern times. The nation has watched him grow up as he made his bow at Beijing 2008, winning bronzes in London and Rio, a gold and bronze in Tokyo and then a silver in Paris.
“The support that I’ve had from Great Britain has been so incredible,” he said looking back on a tumultuous career in which he was left grieving the death of his father in 2011. He also sparked global attention in 2013 when he came out in a video posted on YouTube. “Thank you to everyone that’s just been there for me throughout the whole of this. I guess it’s an era, but you know, I can look back on my 23 years and be very proud.”
It had long been anticipated that the last fortnight would be his last Games but in making the news official on Monday, Daley said in a separate interview that “it feels very, very surreal”.
Daley had first confirmed his retirement in a British Vogue interview in which he also encouraged more gay athletes to come forward to break sport’s “heteronormative” dominance. He welcomed that “with every Olympics, there are more and more out athletes” but suggested some may not have come out due to the pressure of being seen as an “activist”.
Opening up on his decision to announce he was gay in in 2013, Daley said he felt it was necessary after a tabloid headline read: “Tom Daley, ‘I’m Not Gay’”. “It infuriated me that somebody would say that,” he told Vogue. “I never wanted to be seen as lying or hiding from who I was.”
He said it has since been “powerful” to see more athletes come out, but he added: “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. 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 said he had decided before the Games that his appearance in Paris would be his last. He retires as Team GB’s most decorated diver in Olympic history. “It feels very, very surreal,” said Daley of retirement. “I felt so incredibly nervous going into this, knowing it was my last Olympics. There was a lot of pressure and expectations. I was eager for it to be done. But when I walked out, and saw my husband and kids and my friends and family in the audience, I was like, you know what? This is exactly why I did this.
“It was emotional at the end, up there on the platform, knowing it was going to be my last competitive dive. 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.”
Team GB finished Paris 2024 with 65 medals, beating their total from Tokyo by one. The total matches the team’s medal haul from London 2012 and is the joint-third-highest for Team GB at a single Games behind Rio 2016 (67 medals) and London 1908 (146). But GB did get eight fewer golds than they did three years ago in Tokyo and 14 golds was only good enough for seventh in the medal table, GB’s lowest placing since Athens 2004.
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