Daley confirmed for fifth Olympics in Paris
Daley first competed at an Olympics as a 14-year-old in 2008
Tom Daley will compete at a fifth Olympics in Paris this summer after he was confirmed in Team GB’s diving team.
Daley, 29, took time away from the sport after winning gold at the last Olympics but will compete in the 10m synchronised platform event with Noah Williams.
The pair won silver at the World Championships in February following Daley’s return last December.
“No one else in the world would take two years out and be as good as he is,” said Williams, 23.
It was widely believed Daley planned to retire from diving during his hiatus but he opted to return after son Robbie said he wanted to see his father compete at an Olympics.
His comeback began at the British National Diving Cup in December before he and Williams sealed Great Britain’s spot in the 10m synchronised event in Paris with their world silver earlier this year.
They also won gold at a World Cup event in Berlin in March.
Williams and Daley competed together for the first time in December
The success comes despite the pair barely training together given Daley now lives in Los Angeles with his husband and two children.
Williams will fly to the United States to stay and train with Daley for two weeks later this month to allow the pair to fine-tune before the Games.
“I think he’s got a guest bedroom,” Williams said. “I am assuming he has, otherwise I have no idea where I am staying.”
Daley, who has won one Olympic gold and three bronze medals, was 14 when he competed at his first Olympics in 2008 – an event Williams watched as an eight-year-old.
“My first memory of diving in general is at my grandad’s house and he turned the tele on and it was him [Daley] in Beijing in a handstand,” said Williams, who also competed at the Tokyo Olympics but failed to make the final of the individual event.
“He said ‘that’s that young kid everyone is talking about’ and then he turned it off and said diving is boring anyway. I didn’t even get to see the dive.”
In Tokyo, Daley partnered Matty Lee but Lee will miss this summer’s Games after undergoing spinal surgery.
Team GB have also confirmed world bronze medallists Lois Toulson and Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix, the daughter of TV presenter Fred Sirieix, for the women’s 10m platform synchronised event while Jack Laugher and Anthony Harding will contest the men’s 3m springboard – the event Laugher won gold alongside Chris Mears in Rio in 2016.
Yasmin Harper and Scarlett Mew-Jensen, who won silver at the 2023 world championships and bronze this year, will take part together in the women’s 3m springboard.
The British entrants for the individual events in Paris will be confirmed after the Aquatics GB Diving Championships, which take place in Birmingham from 23-26 May.