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DALEY: So I thought, I need to get something where I - it actually makes it worth getting them. So I was like, you know what? I'm going to put made with love by Tom Daley. So that was where it came from. And I learned from YouTube. So learning - I'm, like, self-taught, really. Years earlier, a seven-year-old Daley was just starting out. And how, exactly, does a child that age psych themselves up to launch off a board several times their size? ‘You start on smaller boards and work your way up. But yeah, I spent a lot of my time crying at the end of the board because I was so terrified of it. And I hit my head twice when I was a kid.’ There were more [out] LGBT athletes in this past Olympics than in all of the Olympics combined previously. So even just knowing that, people will feel less alone." Daley on... his dad Sometimes you can arrive at the Olympic Games and you can feel exhausted, whereas I know if I can arrive at the board feeling good and having the energy to dive well, I'll dive well." Daley on... knitting Daley came out in 2013 via a YouTube video entitled Something I Want To Say. The Tom in the coming-out video – whose nervousness and fear is palpable, so much so that you just want to jump through your laptop screen and give him a hug – is worlds away from the Tom of today who is evidently comfortable in his own skin. RuPaul’s Drag Race? He’s obsessed. Beyoncé’s Renaissance? ‘It’s what the gays wanted!’
I never thought I'd feel emotion the way that I felt it. I always dreamed about singing the national anthem at the top of my lungs and I literally couldn't even speak. Although this is Tom’s debut craft book, he published a memoir in 2021, titled Coming Up for Air, which detailed his early sporting career and experience of publicly coming out as gay. Included in his new book “Made with Love" are knitting and crocheting patterns for pillow covers, blankets and sweaters. Daley says that putting the patterns together was a fun process, and might encourage people to "upcycle, reuse and repurpose" some of their existing items. However, he says that surrounding himself with good people and being able to talk about his struggles has helped him to “come out on the other side,” better able to “ride all of those emotions out.”Every project I did, I learned a new skill and then I taught myself how to crochet as well and then I started designing and learning how to be able to actually design something from a drawing,” Daley says. That viral Olympic cardigan I felt strangely at peace with it, because I knew what I had to do to be at my best at those Olympic Games, doing whatever visualisation, rehab and supplements to be able to get on the diving board and be there and ready. I was prepared to do it. I think the pandemic opened everyone’s eyes that everybody struggles in a certain way, which is good that now people are starting to open up,” he says. 'Made with Love' and advice for his son Summer 2021 saw Tom compete in the Tokyo Olympics where he won his first Olympic gold medal alongside his diving partner Matty Lee in the 10m synchro event. Followed by a bronze medal in the 10m individual event, Tom is the most decorated British diver of all time. It’s part of my mindfulness routine, a way of escaping from everything for a while, and I’ve made all kinds of things like scarves and little hats for my son [Robbie].”
For many, it was the moment of the Tokyo Games when the 27-year-old finally became an Olympic champion, at his fourth Games, alongside Matty Lee in the synchronised 10m platform event. TOM DALEY: Yes. Honestly, it was - when I first started knitting, I had no idea of the impact that it was going to have. He never, ever got to see me win any of my Olympic medals. He got to see me compete in Beijing, but he wasn't around for London 2012, Rio or Tokyo. I think he would be extremely proud to think that I have not only got four Olympic medals, but one of them is a gold. In an exclusive interview with BBC Breakfast's Sally Nugent, Daley talks about getting that gold medal, his late father, how his son has changed his perspective, and his favourite hobby - knitting. When you train for four years — in this case it was five because of the pandemic — you get one chance, six dives," he says, and the pressure to get it right in that single moment can get into a person's head.Figuring out his sexuality as a public figure was another challenge, Daley says. “Having to do that in a very public way was really difficult and scary.” If that’s what he wanted to do, I would just be there to help him with whatever he needed and give him advice,” he says.
From winning his first diving gold at 13-years-old and going on to represent Team GB at the 2008, 2012, 2016 and 2020 Olympic Games, Tom has gone on to inspire the nation. Though Daley’s Olympic future remains up in the air, there's one thing he's sure of and that’s the person he’d love to knit for. DALEY: Yes. So there's a couple of the jumpers I designed for kids and adults, and there's also even a dog hat in there. And there's also, like, homewares. So there's blankets and cushions - plant pots, even. Often lots of people get quite sad when they think about the parents they've lost, but for me, it just makes me so happy and proud to have done what we had always dreamed of doing.
Olympic diver and double World Champion, Tom Daley is one of the most celebrated and influential names in sport. And Tokyo? “Tokyo was, for me, the pinnacle of all the Olympics, all the experiences that led up to that moment and being able to do that,” he says. “For me, that was still the most special one.” His dream craft project
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