Tom Daley "extremely happy" with gold and bronze at Tokyo 2020

After his synchro gold, British diver takes individual 10m platform bronze having refrained from knitting in between dives unlike in the prelims.

4 min

Tom DALEY

Diving

(2021 Getty Images)

Tom Daley took bronze in the individual 10m platform final on Saturday (7 August) to add to his synchro gold at Tokyo 2020.

Daley, who teamed up with Matty Lee to win his first Olympic title, qualified from Friday's prelims in fourth place and was seen knitting in between dives.

The needles were notably absent on Saturday as Daley qualified from the semi-finals for the 12-strong final, again in fourth place.

The 27-year-old led the final after the second dive out of six and held that advantage at the midway stage.

A disappointing fourth dive saw him slip to third place behind the two Chinese favourites with CAO Yuan topping the scoresheets from reigning world champion YANG Jian.

And that's how it finished with Cao adding to his 3m springboard gold from Rio 2016 despite a spectacular final effort from Yang which was 10 points better than anything else seen in the final.

For Daley, it was a fourth Olympic medal in his fourth Games and a repeat of his bronze at London 2012.

He told Olympics.com, "I am just over the moon with how these Olympic Games have gone. If someone had told me I was going to win a gold and a bronze coming into these Games I would have bitten their hand off for it. And I'm just so happy to think that this is my fourth Olympic medal and I've got one gold as well which is something I've always dreamed of my whole life.

"There's so many people that come behind these medals when you see athletes standing on the podium - my coach, my support staff around me helping me stay in one piece, but obviously most importantly my husband and my son.

"The crazy thing about love is the fact that when you feel so loved and feel so supported, when I stand on that diving board, I know that if I dive well or if I dive terribly they're going to love me regardless and that's something that's really special and something that takes so much pressure off you.

"It also gives you a sense of perspective and I know what matters most and that's my family. We've gone through a wild ride together my family over the last 20 years to get to... well, I'm finally Olympic champion and four-time Olympic medalist so I'm extremely happy."

Tom Daley talks about his love of knitting

In the prelims, Daley was knitting between his own dives in the warm-up area after being seen indulging in the activity in the stands on previous days.

Having completed the Team GB cardigan he was working on earlier in the week, Daley made a colourful scarf on this occasion.

He revealed to Olympics.com Friday, "On the poolside, one of the officials came up to me and they had a little toy. I said I want something really simple that I don't have to think about doing so I'll knit a scarf. So I knitted a scarf for a little toy penguin... as random as that gets!

"I have taken up knitting over the past year and I've absolutely loved every second of it. It's something that's allowed me to stay extremely mindful and be able to get my head away from the diving pool. And also I'm terrible at relaxing and recovering so it's actually something I can do sitting down where I actually feel like I'm doing something.

"I'm usually a nail biter. A fidgeter. To be able to knit occupies my hands... Stops me from snacking when I'm bored too."