Tom Daley inches closer to second Olympic gold medal after somersaulting into diving semi-final
Britain’s Tom Daley competes in the preliminary round of the men’s 10m platform diving. (OLI SCARFF/AFP via Getty Images)
Tom Daley put his knitting needles down to return to the diving board once again, inching closer to a second medal at the Tokyo Olympics.
The British diver finished fourth place in the individual men’s 10 metres platform preliminary. By being in the top 18, the 27-year-old has qualified for the semi-finals, which take place on Saturday (7 August).
Daley had a slow start at the preliminary, but surged from 23rd to 18th to 12th to sixth place before finally somersaulting (literally) into the top four. Scoring 56.10 for his first dive, his final shot earned him 91.80 and a total score of 453.70, beaten by Russia’s Aleksander Bonat and China’s Cao Yuan and Yang Yuan.
Tom Daley competes in the preliminary round of the men’s 10m platform diving event. (Attila KISBENEDEK / AFP) (Photo by ATTILA KISBENEDEK/AFP via Getty Images)
Fellow Team GB diver Noah Williams, who went viral with Daley earlier this week with a jcondom unboxing video on TikTok, failed to clinch a victory, landing in 27th place.
Tom Daley feels Olympic victory shows queer folk can ‘achieve anything’
The preliminary comes after Tom Daley soared to first place in the men’s synchronised 10-metre platform, scoring his first-ever Olympic gold medal in the process.
Daley was joined by diving partner Matty Lee to end up scoring a thumping 471.81 points – beating the Chinese by a single, nail-biting point.
An emotional Daley was spotted shedding a few tears as he stood proudly on the winners’ podium.
“I hope that any young LGBT+ person out there can see that no matter how alone you feel right now, you are not alone and that you can achieve anything,” Daley later told reporters.
“There is a whole lot of your chosen family out here ready to support you.”
Tom Daley and Matty Lee of Great Britain hug on the podium. (Tim Clayton/Corbis via Getty Images)
He continued: “I think it’s one of those things that I feel incredibly proud to say that I am a gay man and also an Olympic champion.
“I think it’s something that – I mean I feel very empowered by that because when I was younger I thought that I was never going to be anything or achieve anything because of who I was.
“And to be an Olympic champion now just shows that you can achieve anything.”
Tokyo is Tom Daley’s fourth Olympic Games. He first competed at the Beijing 2008 Games aged 14.
