Paris 2024: Tom Daley to return to diving after two-year break
Tom Daley will return to diving after a two-year break and bid for a spot at Paris 2024 after son Robbie mentioned he wished to see his father compete at an Olympics.
After opting in opposition to returning for this 12 months’s World Championships, the place the primary batch of Olympic qualification quota locations have been on provide, it was broadly thought Daley was planning to formally name time on his profession.
Nevertheless, he says a latest go to to the Olympic and Paralympic Museum in Colorado Springs, USA, along with his son Robbie modified the path of his life.
“Paris 2024 is certainly a purpose,” the Olympic, world, European and Commonwealth champion mentioned in a post on social media.
“I am not able to be completed and I do not suppose I used to be able to be completed and dangle up my trunks and transfer on with that a part of my life and particularly when my son Robbie mentioned ‘Pappa I wish to see you dive on the Olympics’.”
Daley, who not too long ago grew to become a father for the second time to son Phoenix, says he needs to “set an instance” to his kids by “working onerous” to attain what can be a British-record fifth Olympic Video games look for a British diver.
After making his Olympic debut as a 14-year-old at Beijing in 2008, he gained bronze medals at London 2012 and Rio 2016, earlier than lastly claiming gold on the delayed Tokyo Video games in July 2021, the place he additionally gained one other particular person bronze.
“We had the perfect time at time on the Olympic and Paralympic Museum enjoying completely different video games and on the finish we went right into a room to observe a video about what it means to be an athlete and see these inspirational journeys,” recalled the three-time world champion.
“I simply wept; I could not management myself, I hadn’t grieved diving.
“I hadn’t been doing it anymore and that I in idea had retired and could not think about going again to doing it once more.
“Popping out of that museum one thing modified in me and that has lit a brand new flame and fireplace inside me to see the place this goes.”
The British diving workforce not too long ago returned from the 2023 World Championships with a powerful haul of three medals, however notably didn’t declare podium finishes within the males’s 10m or males’s 10m synchro occasions.
Daley’s Olympic gold medal-winning team-mate Lee and his new accomplice Noah Williams claimed world silver collectively in 2022, however completed fourth in Japan.
Ought to his return progress as he hopes then Daley’s first competitors again is more likely to be the World Championship choice occasion on the finish of the 12 months earlier than the Doha World Championships in February.
The Paris Olympics will likely be held from 26 July to 11 August 2024.
