Becoming a father himself, Daley says, has changed his perspective about what matters: “You stop worrying about the little things because your plate is very full. It’s also made me want to leave the world a better place, be that the environment, human rights or just the attitude we have towards one another.”
Reflecting on his father, he says: “I’d like to think he’d be proud of what I’ve done.” Would he be wearing a Daley-designed knit? “I don’t think so,” he laughs. “He just used to wear a red shirt.”
Robert never saw his son win a medal of any colour. At London 2012, the year after his father’s death, Daley won bronze in the individual discipline. Four years later, a bronze in the synchro with Dan Goodfellow at Rio 2016. “That’s the one thing that makes me sad,” he says. “It’s something I really wish he’d been able to see.”
Daley is undecided at the moment about whether he will try to add to his medal collection at Paris in 2024. He hasn’t trained since the Tokyo Games, taking a well-earned break since securing gold, but is planning to go back in a couple of weeks and see how it feels in the pool.
Going from training six hours a day, six days a week for 21 years to a life with no formal structure has been a shock to his system. If he works out now for “only” an hour a day, it feels like an unwarranted rest.
Recently, Daley opened up about the pressure he felt to keep his weight down when he was younger, and how comments from coaches triggered bulimia. He believes that in some ways, it was just a by-product of being an athlete who treats their body like a machine. “In a sport like diving, the lighter you are, still with strength, the higher you’re able to jump. It makes a difference.”
Read More: Tom Daley: ‘I owe the Olympic gold to knitting – mistakes can teach you lessons’
