Tom Daley wants to win an Olympic medal as tribute to his late father

Tom Daley has said he’ll dedicate any medal he wins at London 2012 to the memory of his late father, Robert.

His dad, who was instrumental in helping Daley establish himself as one of the world’s top divers, lost his battle with brain cancer in May last year.

The 18-year-old keeps his old man’s ashes in his bedroom and views him as the greatest influence on his career.

 

Tom said: “Winning a medal would make all the struggles I’ve had worthwhile.

“It has been my dream since a young age to compete at an Olympics. I did that in Beijing for the experience but now I want a good performance.

“I’m doing it for myself and my dad. It was both our dreams from a young age. My dad was so supportive of everything. It would make it extra special to do it for him.

“I’ve got to try to win the medal first but I’d definitely dedicate it to him.

“He’s the person who helped me and gave me all the inspiration that I’ve needed. He taught me all the lessons in life that I needed.”

Daley is competing in two events starting with the men’s 10m synchronised platform alongside partner Peter Waterfield on July 30.

Nearly two weeks later, on the penultimate day of the Games, he will aim for gold in the individual 10m platform – a standard he reached in the European championships in May.

He said: “For me it’s about doing the best six dives I possibly can.

“My dream is to win an Olympic gold medal, or any Olympic medal but dreams and reality are two different things.

“Diving is such an on-the-day sport that no one knows what will happen because there are so many divers who can win.

“For me it’s about focusing on the process of each individual dive rather than the outcome.”

China’s world No.1 Qiu Bo will provide the greatest threat to Daley’s hopes of securing individual gold and the Plymouth Diving Club product insists victory will be decided by who best handles the pressure.

He said: “Chinese divers dominate everything to the extent that winning a silver is like winning a gold.

“Qiu Bo has been unbeaten for a long time and has been diving so well.

“It will be interesting to see what happens on the day.”

Daley and his fellow Team GB diving squad members stayed in the athletes’ village on Monday night before returning to Southend for their Games pre-camp.

Even though the time spent at the Olympic Park was brief, Daley revealed it has whetted the appetite for what is to come.

He said: “It’s awesome. I didn’t want to come back home as we wereimmersed in the atmosphere.”