TV REVIEW: Why Tom Daley Is Already A Champion As He Heads To London Olympics 2012

TV REVIEW: Why Tom Daley's Already A Champion
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If it feels like we already know Tom Daley really well, it's because he's everywhere - posters, adverts, billboards - like a cross between Ant and Dec with a perfect Dentifrice smile signalling his rightful place for the face of London 2012.

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Tom Daley - challenges in and outside the pool

So it didn't seem like we needed a documentary detailing his pilgrimage to the Olympics, except there was a whole load of stuff that hadn't come out before, and proved freshly deserving of our admiration...

  • At the age of nine, young Tom drew a picture of himself doing a handstand. Next to it was written '2012 Olympics'. He still has it.
  • Two years later, he became the youngest diver in Britain to qualify for the Commonwealth Games.
  • He was given a car by his sponsors, and then had to learn to drive.
  • While his Chinese rivals were training twice or three times a day, Tom was studying for his A-levels around sessions. He got four Grade As.

You know that everyone's looking at you and everyone's judging you and you feel quite vulnerable.

The most difficult dive in the world is called the front four-and-a-half, and Tom had to learn it belatedly if he is to have a chance against his main rival, current world champion Qiu Bo.

But these challenges were mere sniffs compared with the biggest test of Tom's mettle, as last night's documentary showed - the illness and death of Rob, Tom's father and closest supporter through all his years of ambition and training.

As Rob managed to get to see Tom and his partner sneak a gold medal at last year's world championships, his own father made it clear where the family's priorities lay - "with Rob, not with Tom" - which illustrated why Tom has got such an amazingly clear head on his shoulders.

While the huge question was whether Tom would wish to carry on with such an absence around him, the incredibly articulate teenager described the confusion of the time:

"People come up and say how sorry they are, and I don't know what to say. I want to say, 'thanks, it's ok' but it's not."

Two months after losing his father, Daley lost his world diving title to his Chinese rival, but qualified for the London Olympics.

"I don't really know how I feel," he admitted. "Sometimes I feel bad for carrying on, but I think that's what dad would have wanted."

Tom may not have his father to insist on a hug in the press conference afterwards (every teenager's nightmare, but I bet he's glad now), but he'll have everyone else rooting for him, after he dealt so gracefully with insurmountable loss and somehow kept going - the hallmarks of a champion before the first whistle is blown.

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