Tom Daley to return to diving with sights set on Paris Olympics

PA Sport Staff

Olympic champion Tom Daley has said he will return to the pool to target a spot at Paris 2024.

Daley (29) won Olympic gold alongside Matty Lee in the men’s synchronised 10 metre platform at the Tokyo Games, his third Olympics after his debut as a teenager at London 2012.

The three-time world champion has taken two years out since then, saying he had “in theory retired”, but in a new YouTube video he said a recent trip to Colorado Springs in the United States had reignited his competitive spirit with a year to go until Paris.

Daley and his husband Dustin Lance Black travelled to Colorado for the birth of their second son, with Daley saying he had not realised its status as an Olympic city until they arrived. He then took eldest son Robbie to the museum there and felt inspired to attempt a return.

“Robbie said to me, ‘Papa, I want to see you dive in the Olympics’,” Daley said. “It has lit a new flame in me to see where this goes, I don’t know where this is going to go.

“I don’t know if this is going to be a completely silly idea of me getting back in the pool or an opportunity for me to do this recreationally and have a bit of fun without any pressure, or if my body is going to be able to get back on a diving board and dive half-decently.

“I don’t know what that’s going to look like. Paris 2024 is definitely a goal. I don’t know if it’s going to be possible but you never say never.”