Workforce Nice Britain’s Thomas Daley and Helen Glover imitate the enduring “I am flying!” scene from the movie Titanic throughout the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics on Friday.
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Naomi Baker/Getty Photos Europe
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Among the many fan favorites on the Paris Olympics is Tom Daley, Britain’s most embellished diver.
On Monday morning, Daley took silver within the males’s synchronized 10-meter platform occasion with teammate Noah Williams. China’s Lian Junjie and Yang Hao received gold, whereas Canada’s Rylan Wiens and Nathan Zsombor-Murray earned bronze.
Daley, 30, now has 5 Olympic medals in his assortment, together with one gold and three bronze.
Even earlier than Daley’s efficiency on Monday, followers from all over the world have been beaming to see him on the Olympics. Daley deliberate to retire after the Tokyo Video games, however had a change of coronary heart after visiting the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Museum in Colorado.
“On the finish, there was this video of what it means to be an Olympian, and naturally, by the top of it, I used to be crying, and Robbie turned to me and mentioned, ‘What is the matter, Papa, what is the matter?’ I mentioned I missed diving and I missed the Olympics,” Daley advised Olympics.com, referring to his oldest son. “And Robbie was like, ‘I need to see you dive on the Olympics.’ And that was that.”
On prime of expertise, followers love Daley for his humor, his household and his knitting — amongst different causes.
The world watched Daley develop up
Daley made his Olympic debut at simply 14 years outdated in 2008, changing into the youngest athlete to compete for Britain on the Video games in almost 50 years. He didn’t win a medal in Beijing, nevertheless it was clear that he had an extended, promising profession forward of him.
The world watched on as Daley grew taller and his voice deepened. Followers additionally admired Daley’s honesty about being bullied by classmates after the Olympics. At 14, Daley quickly withdrew from faculty because of this. Later in life, he turned an advocate in opposition to bullying.
“If you happen to’re being bullied in school, you are not the one one,” he advised the BBC in 2009.
Then, main as much as his second Olympics, followers noticed 17-year-old Daley navigate the lack of his father to mind most cancers in 2011.
The next yr, the younger diver took dwelling his first Olympic medal — a bronze — in London. He did it once more in 2016. And in 2020, at age 27, Daley struck gold, in addition to bronze once more, in Tokyo and have become essentially the most embellished diver in Britain’s historical past.
He’s a household man
Daley is just not the one particular person his followers adore, but in addition his husband and two younger sons.
From the stands in Paris, Daley’s 6- and 1-year-old boys wore “Workforce Daley” T-shirts, whereas husband Dustin Lance Black’s eyes watered with delight as Daley carried out.
Daley has been in a relationship with Black since 2013, when Daley boldly advised the world he was in a relationship with a person through a video on Youtube. Since then, Daley has additionally been a distinguished activist for LGBTQ rights.
“I met somebody, and it made me really feel so joyful, so secure and every part simply feels nice, and nicely that somebody is a man,” he mentioned in 2013.
And he knits!
Out of the pool, Daley captured individuals’s hearts along with his favourite pastime: knitting.
On his social media accounts, Daley usually posts recommendations on methods to knit and pictures of his handmade items. However his most viral and lauded knitting second occurred on the Tokyo Olympics, when cameras captured Daley knitting within the stands.
In an interview with NPR after the Tokyo Olympics, Daley mentioned it was initially his coach who instructed he attempt knitting as a result of he is “horrible at sitting nonetheless and resting and recovering.”
“It simply changed into my mindfulness, my meditation, my calm and my option to escape the stresses of on a regular basis life and, particularly, going into an Olympics,” he advised NPR.
His ardour for yarn is so sturdy that he launched his personal knitting store, in addition to wrote a ebook, Made with Love, which incorporates a few of his favoriting knitting and crocheting patterns.
Already, clips of Daley knitting in his seat whereas watching this yr’s Video games are making the rounds — bringing pleasure to the knitting neighborhood and sports activities followers alike.