Matty Lee, learning from diving icon Tom Daley in sport and in life
Claiming gold at Tokyo 2020 in 10m synchro, the British divers shared the happiest of emotions, but a year later, Daley would help his friend shoulder the burden of a shared tragedy.
Matty Lee is set to compete in the diving World Championships taking place from 14 to 30 July in Fukuoka, Japan, but it's been the best and worst of rollercoaster rides to get here for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic champion.
When Olympics.com spoke to Lee in June 2022, almost a year after winning the men's 10m synchronised title with partner Tom Daley at the delayed Tokyo Games in 2021, he talked about the mental gymnastics involved in returning to the sport after such immediate success at his debut Games.
His iconic dive partner and confidant was taking a break to spend time with his family and pursue his passion for knitting and fashion, while Lee was struggling to go back to the pool after a stint doing reality TV, which he loved.
Back to the daily grind and the repetitive nature of an elite athlete with all its restrictions and discipline was proving tough.
"I definitely struggled a lot because when it was time to go back to training. Life felt incredible for a month or two," he said. "Everything was really exciting and new to me and then all of a sudden it was just back to the day job."
Speaking to other divers helped, including Chris Mears, a fellow Olympic synchro gold medallist on 3m springboard at Rio 2016, with another British diving icon, Jack Laugher.
Mears also struggled in returning to the sport, eventually retiring to become a DJ/music producer but Lee told Olympics.com, "It's almost like it's not necessarily what they said, but it's just knowing that there are other people out there that have gone through it and are out of that hole".
Sadly, that quote would prove prescient when Lee's father Tim died suddenly just months later, in October 2022.
One of the first people Lee turned to was Daley, who had also lost his father, to brain cancer, at just 17.
'Work husbands' Tom Daley and Matty Lee
"Tom was a big, big support for me, as he always has been with everything," Lee told the BBC in an interview ahead of his first competition back at the British Championships in May 2023. "When the other person also knows how it feels, nothing needs to be said, you just need that comfort, a hug, or just a distraction, especially in those first few months."
The closeness of the training partners and friends was forged through hours and hours of training. Lee also moved to London from his Leeds base, in order to work on the synchro discipline with Daley at his training base, the London Aquatics Centre, the venue where an 18-year-old Daley claimed bronze at his second Olympic Games.
He'd competed in his first, Beijing 2008, at 14 years old.
At Rio 2016, Daley was hoping to finally claim that longed-for Olympic gold but, despite winning bronze with Dan Goodfellow in the synchro event, a disappointing performance in the individual competition, despite qualifying top, left him reeling.
It was up to Daley's husband, American screenwriter and director, Dustin Lance Black, to encourage his spouse to continue on to Japan. "He said to me my story wasn’t finished and my son [Robbie] needed to be there to watch me win an Olympic gold medal," Daley said post Tokyo, while also revealing he'd had knee surgery just one month before the Games. “I can say my son watched me become an Olympic champion, albeit on TV as they couldn’t be here. It’s such a great feeling.”
The diving twosome became so close they called each other "work husbands", and a special present from Daley to Lee ahead of the Tokyo Games meant much to the less experienced diver.
“He surprised me with this Olympic ring, which is something really cool and special because it’s the exact same mould of his ring that he got years and years ago after his first Olympics,” Lee told Olympics.com.
"So, regardless of how we did, he still had a little surprise he brought from England. It’s so, so special that he got me that."
That winning moment sealed an already precious friendship, and a unique base from which Lee could turn to navigate the trauma to come.
Matty Lee's reaction to devastating loss
Following a period of reflection after Tokyo 2020, Lee had successfully returned to diving having navigated how he felt after "achieving my highest dreams at my first Olympics".
Alongside new synchro partner Noah Williams, Lee claimed silver at the 2022 World Championships in Budapest, Hungary in June – in their first international competition together – and Commonwealth Games gold in the same discipline in Birmingham, plus bronze in the individual event for Lee.
The latter was the last competition in which Matty's dad would see him compete.
Lee's first reaction to the devastating loss was perhaps expected.
"When I came back into training, I think I dived back into it way too quick, like it is my escape," Lee told the AP news agency in March 2023. "So, it's almost as if I tried too hard to escape how I was feeling."
An injury soon followed forcing Lee out of the pool and into a recovery period – both physical and mental.
"It was a complete shock," said Lee in a BBC interview in May. "It affects your world so very much especially when that person means the world to you and especially the sport, like he was my biggest fan."
The closeness of the family was reflected in an interview conducted by the BBC following Lee's golden moment in Tokyo. "He's just become very demanding," said Tim, to chuckles from Matty, his brother Tom and mum Helen in a family video after winning gold at Tokyo 2020. "It goes with the territory, I guess."
"He was so proud of me every single day," says Lee now. "He will always be with me every day but mainly when I'm competing, even if I do a really bad dive in competition, I can bring it back to what really matters in life."