From being the youngest on Team GB at the 2008 Olympics to the oldest-ever medal winner in his event.
From being a 14-year-old schoolboy in Beijing to participating in Paris with the inspiration fuelling his longevity watching in the stands – his children.
The 10m synchro platform title from Tokyo 2020 could not be defended – Chinese rivals were just too superior this time – but Tom Daley was certainly satisfied with silver.
This five-time Olympian now has five medals with a complete set.
But back in the build-up to Beijing 2008, the schoolboy sensation was telling me he was just glad to be recognised in Starbucks and receive a free chocolate Frappuccino.
He said in our first interview: “It’s really weird to think people respect you and recognise you for what you do.”
Something he certainly had to get used to as a face not of British sport but diving worldwide as its biggest star.
Now, 16 years on, we were speaking – with diving partner Noah Williams – at Team GB house in Paris with silver medals won hours earlier reflecting on the journey.
“It’s the whole thing between going back from 2008 and not really knowing what the scale and the grandeur of the Olympics was to then being able to go through it and win medals along the way,” Daley told Sky News.
“But this time around it just feels slightly different. I have a different perspective on what the Olympics means for me.
“For now, my family is the most important and being able to compete in front of them and for them was really special.”
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Tom Daley ‘smashed it’
‘When your kid asks you to do something, you do it’
Phoenix, three years old, was celebrating in Paris in the arms of Daley’s husband Dustin Lance Black, along with their other son, five-year-old Robbie, who was desperate to see dad in person at an Olympics.
It’s why, after a two-year break, Daley put his body and mind through another gruelling Olympic cycle.
“When your kid asks you to do something, you do it or else – like all hell breaks loose,” Daley said. “So it was just one of those things that I kind of did miss diving … and there was a reason why I didn’t say I was done [after Tokyo].
“I always felt like there was something that I was always clinging on to.
“And it’s really hard as an athlete to be able to say, ‘I’m naturally done’.
“And Robbie saying, ‘Oh, I want to see a dive at the Olympics’ was the perfect hook for me to be like, right, he said it, I’m off.
“And, I didn’t know if I was going to make it back in the synchro team. We didn’t know if we were going to qualify for the Olympics.
“But actually, once things started getting going and we realised that actually we’re doing pretty well. And in every event that we’ve done this year, we’ve won a medal. So we’ve been pretty happy about that.”
Daley and Williams during the Men’s Synchronised 10m Platform Final. Pic: PA
‘Tokyo was a very different kind of Olympics’
And happy to do it at the Olympics in front of a crowd again after Daley finally won gold in the pandemic Games in an empty venue.
“It feels very kind of surreal as well, to be here at a fifth Olympic Games and to have been able to dive in front of a crowd again because Tokyo was a very different kind of Olympics,” Daley said. “So to be able to have one more go out and be able to come away with silver and stick with Noah, it was very special. So definitely on a high.”
‘I’ve cried so much today’
It was emotional too for Williams.
At this high point of his career – after missing out on a medal in Tokyo – the 24-year-old was remembering coach Dave Jenkins who died suddenly between the Olympics.
Williams told Sky News: “I’ve cried far too much today. It was crazy emotional.
“I didn’t think I would but getting messages from his wife and then his family members as well, it made me feel so proud and so happy. And I feel like I finally did him proud.”
‘I wanted to quit so many times when I was younger’
Without the backing of Mr Jenkins, Williams wouldn’t have even been in Paris.
“I wanted to quit so many times when I was younger, but he stuck by me and took me from a little cocky 15-year-old to an Olympian in Tokyo,” Williams recalled.
“So he helped my career and my whole life massively. And was the nicest person I ever knew. I miss him every day.”
With the medal proudly around his neck, Williams said: “It’s definitely for Dave.”
