Tom Daley: Diving for Britain

I think I was nine when I drew this.

It's me doing a handstand in the Olympics in London 2012.

It'll definitely be absolutely out of this world if I could do it.

Tom Daley is waiting for his dream to come true.

It's July 2011, and with one year to go to the London Olympics,

he's doing the inaugural dive into the aquatic pool.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Tom is one of the faces of London 2012

and he has the hopes of a nation on his shoulders.

But he's lost his world title to an apparently

invincible Chinese opponent.

CROWD: ..three, two, one!

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Will he be able to fulfil his dream and bring home the gold

after one of the most difficult years of his young life?

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Tom has always lived in Plymouth, with his family.

Dad, Rob. Brothers Ben and William.

-Oh, no!

-Mum!

-No, don't call mum.

-Come on, jump on.

And his Mum, Debbie.

This is the person that's got a bad back.

Rob has always been Tom's biggest supporter.

He's taken him to all his training sessions

and waved the flag at every competition.

Look, doesn't that really annoy you? The back of his neck.

Look at it all roll up. That really annoys me.

What the hell are you doing?

-How did he get up there?

-Ladder. Obviously.

But as Tom heads into his toughest year yet,

preparing for the London Olympics...

..Rob is facing his own huge personal battle.

I started what I thought was hallucinating.

I had a strange sensation come over me,

like I was filling up with hot water.

So I had an MRI scan and a subsequent CAT scan

and he said to me, "Oh, you've got a brain tumour."

"Oh, have I?" And I'm thinking to myself, well,

I wasn't expecting that. I said, "How big is it compared to the size of a 2p piece?"

"Size of a fist," he said.

And you think to yourself, well, 2012 Olympics.

Am I going to be going to that?

Rob needs regular scans to determine his treatment.

-INTERCOM:

-Hello, can I help?

-Robert Daly for an MRI scan, please.

-Pull the door, take a seat in the waiting room, please.

-Thank you.

In January 2011, Rob receives terrible news.

A second tumour has been detected in his brain.

I go in the room where the scanner is

and they ask me what sort of music I'd like to listen to

while I'm having the scan.

-Beach Boys. He'd like Beach Boys, wouldn't he, Mum?

-Yeah.

-TECHINCIAN:

-About five minutes.

I think about it on my own and you think to yourself, well,

am I going to see grandchildren?

You know, they're all things I get all the time

because I'd be foolish not to think that.

I've got to be real about it, haven't I?

How Tom's dealing with it, what Tom's got to live with, you know.

I spend a lot of time with him on my own, but because I'm always laughing

and joking with him, he thinks I'm fine.

Three, two, one, go.

It's actually got to look like a tie, though, Rob.

That does look like a tie, Tom. Stop it now.

'I don't want to talk to Tom about it

'because I find that I'm upsetting myself just to sit there and...

'..just see his face drop and what not.'

It's all twisted! It's still twisted.

Twisted around his neck. It's not done properly.

Rob is determined to be there for Tom as much as he can

in the lead up to the Olympics.

As Tom's next major competition is in three weeks' time

at the World Series in Sheffield,

he's training twice a day in Plymouth.

Two and a half hours before and after school.

The Chinese divers are probably doing, say,

two or three training sessions a day

and because they don't go to school,

they don't do anything other than diving

so I'd say they're probably doing about seven hours a day.

And they're probably doing that six days a week,

so they're doing A LOT of training.

In order to beat the Chinese, Tom needs to learn a new dive.

The front four-and-a-half .

It's the most difficult dive in the world.

Fun time.

You're looking at 1.8 seconds for the whole dive.

The entry's got to be very low down.

It's not like the easier dives where they've got a bit of float time.

You've got no float time

in this dive. It's all about getting out and getting in.

Front four-and-a-half is definitely a love-hate dive.

One, two, three, go.

Get it wrong, it will drop a diver to the bottom of the medal table.

Get it right, and the diver is unbeatable.

It's a real crucial dive.

It's worth the risk and I know I have to risk everything in 2012.

I'm really happy with that, Tom.

Sweet.

Along with training, Tom has major sponsorship commitments,

and he's been given a car before he's even learnt to drive.

What we're doing today is we're handing over Tom Daley's

first new Mini and he is part of our London 2012 performance team

for BMW and for Mini, and as part of that, he gets a car.

Did you have a car like this when you were 17?

No, I had a banger that didn't start on the first day I got it.

It broke down on the first day.

Mind you, it did cost about 300 quid, so that's probably why.

It's actually wrapped up. Oh, that's funny.

Here we go.

That's got red insides as well!

Oh... Right, here we go.

I tell you what I'll do, I'll try and ring my mum.

PHONE RINGS

That's cool.

Ready? Listen. Listen.

BEEPS CAR HORN

-Did you hear that?

-'Is that the horn?'

-Yeah.

-'I did, yeah.'

'Very nice.'

Tom, in ten years time, will have achieved as a diver.

I hope that means he has an Olympic gold medal.

Tom and diving is very important to Tom.

In terms of him as a brand in the commercial side of things

and the media side of things, I think he has a unique opportunity

and we have to create a strategy around that.

He's in a great position commercially of what can happen

from here going forward of Tom the brand,

Tom the breadwinner, he can achieve a hell of a lot.

Roll camera, please. One more, please.

With Tom being poster boy for London 2012,

he's attracting a number of sponsorship deals and commercial opportunities.

Becoming a brand adds additional pressure to his school

and training commitments.

..you can launch into a free canoeing lesson.

First TV advert, so it's...

I'm quite excited but quite nervous at the same time to see whether I can get all my lines in

at the right time, and stuff.

Take 30.

-ALL:

-Get set, go free!

We've done 37 takes of the advert now, but apparently that's quite good for a sequence shot.

Good job, everyone! Good job.

Do you have to be careful that you don't spoil him as a person?

The good news on that side of things is...

his family environment is fantastic.

Rob and the ideals he created are really strong.

That that doesn't change, of course. What happens next, who knows,

if you see what I mean, but there is a strength in Tom.

Rob is having regular scans to see how the chemotherapy

is affecting his tumours.

The results show that they're continuing to grow.

This is the, um, the scan.

-So it just lights up.

-Is that the tumour?

-Yep.

That's the tumour.

Cancer's a horrible thing for anyone.

Anyone that's been through it with a family member or themselves,

they'll know what I mean,

but Dad's had cancer for five years now.

And he got over the first lot and then he had another tumour.

Got over that one and then got another tumour.

So he's been unlucky three times

to get three different types of cancer.

They don't know whether it's spread from the same one or it's gone from different ones, but it's...

Yeah... He's definitely been unlucky. He doesn't deserve it at all.

It's touch and go

if he can attend Tom's next major championship in Sheffield.

We've just got to keep our fingers crossed, really,

because you never know what can happen and you've just got to hope for a miracle.

Sheffield is the start of Tom's campaign

to retain his individual world title at ten metres.

He's also showcasing the new dive,

the front four-and-a-half with his synchro partner Pete Waterfield.

It's the ten metres synchro today. And then the individual tomorrow.

So he's up with Pete Waterfield

off the back of their bronze medal at the last one.

So, they're hoping to get on that rostrum again, if possible.

And of course, it's the big four-and-a-half somersault which everyone's doing

and Tom was very uncomfortable with it and is now much more comfortable with it.

He might actually be enjoying it a little bit now.

The Daley family have driven up from Plymouth to support Tom.

Until the last minute, they weren't sure if Rob would make it,

following another round of chemotherapy.

-It's wonderful.

-It is. It must be.

-Well, I'm just glad to be here,

and...

He's survived my driving!

Are we all right? Yeah.

SHE LAUGHS

-Does it feel like the old days?

-Er... Yeah.

CHEERING

In 2005, Tom became the youngest diver in Britain to qualify

for the Commonwealth Games. He was just 11 years old.

Rob had been by his side for every training session.

So proud of you.

Well done, mate.

He supports me all the way and if I didn't have his support system,

I wouldn't be here now cos...

I wouldn't want to carry on without his support.

How's it been bringing Rob here? How's that been for you?

I didn't think we'd get him here. I really didn't.

Two weeks ago, when he was

going through his chemo, he was very, very drowsy.

He couldn't eat his food without dropping off to sleep.

The last three or four days, he's wide awake now.

Maybe that's because the chemo's gone out of his system.

But he was dropping off a little bit earlier on.

-Great for him, though.

-Yeah. Of course it is.

In fact, I keep saying, "You're here.

"I didn't think you'd get here." But, you know, it's not good, is it?

We won't go there.

ANNOUNCER: Representing Great Britain, we have Thomas Daley...

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Representing China, we have Cao Yuan and Zhang Yanquang.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

I'd like to think they'll come third or fourth. That would be good.

They'll definitely come... They'll definitely come fourth or above.

-And not first?

-No, they won't beat the Chinese.

Cos all they eat is rice.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Diving is judged on five points -

starting position, approach, take off,

flight and entry into the water.

The perfect entry is virtually splash free.

ANNOUNCER: Representing China, Cao Yuan and Zhang Yanquang.

9, 9.5...

What do you feel when you see the Chinese divers up there?

Just breathtaking, really.

Do you know, I look to see

what they're doing different than our divers.

To me, it's I've got a big stone to throw in the water,

you've got a small one, who's going to make the last splash?

It seems an obvious thing, doesn't it? They are small people.

TOM: Anything can happen in diving.

You could get a good start but then slip out, let go of one of your legs.

There's so many things that can go wrong.

Sometimes, you can tell from the start whether it's going to be good or not.

A good dive, you hit the water and you get sucked through it.

Tom and Pete Waterfield

need to pull off the front four and a half to beat the Chinese.

ANNOUNCER: And, finally, representing China, Cao Yuan and Zhang Yanquang.

APPLAUSE

8, 8, 8.5. Thank you, divers!

Tom and Pete clinch the gold medal for the ten metre synchro

after the Chinese perform badly in their final dive.

Quite a shock. I didn't think that would happen but...

I'm glad I'm here.

For him to have done that and beaten the Chinese on his home ground,

fantastic. Unbelievable. Never ever thought he would do that.

-You won't cry, though?

-I don't know...

He's proud of you. Course he can cry.

-He's a right softy, isn't he?

-Yeah.

Ladies and gentlemen, please be upstanding for the national anthem...

Standing up, yeah?

If I can bloody get out of here.

-SHOUTING:

-# Gracious Queen Long live our noble Queen

# God save our Queen. #

Well, I'm hoping he's going to get into the final.

-And who's his main rival?

-Again, it's going to be the Chinese guys.

I know...

..a Chinese PT instructor called Won Jim Shu.

The ten metre individual event

is the most prestigious in the competition.

It attracts legions of Tom's most dedicated fans

from around the country.

-What do you like about Tom?

-We literally think

he's so amazing and what he does, especially

because he's only a year older than us.

I mean, look at us. We're not diving for England in the Olympics.

Hello, Mr Daley, or Rob. I don't know. Get well soon.

All of us who support Tom support you as well.

Your happiness is amazing, you're constantly buzzing.

Best wishes and luck from Chloe.

I can see you're going to be a hit with all the girls now.

-And their mums.

-Watch out, Debbie(!)

In the individual event, Tom's greatest rival

is the Chinese diver, Qui Bo.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Qui Bo is the favourite for the gold.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Brilliant, that was. He's currently fourth now.

One dive to go.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

ANNOUNCER: Ladies and gentlemen,

he's the world number one and he's the winner today, from China, Qui Bo.

Um, I think Tom's come fourth in this competition.

Tom has beaten by Qui Bo and the Americans.

His one poor entry in the back triple somersault cost him a medal.

Being such a big name, Tom can't go away and hide

after a disappointing performance.

His day isn't over when he leaves the pool.

He has 250,000 followers on Twitter

and they grab every opportunity to meet him.

Listen, it's one autograph or photo per person, that's it.

OK, do you want to move over a bit? Right, autograph or photo?

-Photo.

-OK, you'll have to do it from the front.

I'll lean over.

He's got half an hour and then he's got to go.

Tomorrow, I'm going to be going to Mexico

for the next leg of the World Series, so we do it all over again next week.

-When are you home next?

-I'm home next on May 10th,

and then I've got a Spanish oral exam on the 12th,

so it's completely chaotic.

Do you feel like he's gone into a different world now?

Not really, because he still lives at home.

He ain't started to drive yet, so we haven't lost him completely yet.

But are you so glad that he could see Tom win last night?

-Cos that's all you'd wish for, isn't it, that he could be there to see that.

-Yeah, yeah...

You've done it now, haven't you.

Are you planning to go on any trips yourself to support Tom?

Not while Robert's in this condition. We won't leave him, no.

Robert is our priority, not Tom.

-Michaela, Mikhaila, what is it?

-Michaela.

I got called home from Mexico

where I was in a training camp.

I had a phone call from my mum and she just said,

"Tom, you'll have to come home, Dad's quite ill."

So, I didn't really know what to expect from that.

So we came home as quick as we could, myself and Andy, my coach,

and he came in, and we saw him there, just...

laying there, asleep. When he wakes up, his eyes kind of roll.

When he speaks, he's slurred.

Nothing, kind of, you couldn't get anything out of him

and it was...it was terrifying me

cos I could just remember seeing him and thinking all this time

that my dad's been there, he's been away at every competition with me.

He goes away everywhere and then to think that of the possibility

that I wouldn't have a dad, and I wouldn't be able to have

someone that would go away with me, someone that would go to

all the different competitions, be there to watch me at training,

and I can remember thinking, "What if he doesn't get to see me in 2012?"

And I'm thinking that's all he talks about, he talks about,

"Have we got our tickets yet? Do we know if we've got our tickets?"

And you just think...

everything that we've done, we've done it together,

and to think that he might not be in 2012 to see it, it's hard.

Did my maths exam today.

Yeah, it was better than the one in January.

-How do you know?

-It just felt better anyway.

When will you find out?

In the summer, I get my results.

-Mm.

-Mm.

'I try and sit with him as much as I can.

'It's important to try and spend time with him'

because it's the time where he feels the most lonely, he feels the most...

where he can't do anything, and I think it's really important that we spend

as much time as possible just even if I'm there holding his hand or something like that,

we just need to be with him.

Do you feel dazed and shocked still and tired,

or have you not felt any of that?

I don't really know how I feel. I kind of... It's weird. I'm...

I don't feel tired, or sometimes I do, just like any other day,

but I don't feel like...

I don't know how I should feel.

Loads of people...some people sit in the corner and are crying.

I'm kind of feeling bad for carrying on, but I think that's what Dad would have wanted.

Dad would have wanted me to carry on as normal

and even when he was downstairs for that whole month in bed,

he was always talking about...he always said to me, "Why aren't you at training?"

We had some lovely cards from people.

We had messages from people like Seb Coe.

His thoughts are with us and that he that he was sorry to hear about the loss.

We've had cards from people we didn't know,

people who have just followed Tom in his career.

-Have you read every one?

-Yeah.

The amount of people that turned up to the funeral as well.

-Attendance cards. They said each one holds about...

-100?

-100.

-So, nearly 400 people came?

-Yeah.

So, there's loads of people there.

The one good thing about it was that Dad managed to actually write out

William's birthday card because he died three days before his birthday.

When he first...when he got quite poorly,

when I could see that he wasn't going to be able to do things

for much longer, I did get him to write their cards out.

-He put a little comment in each of them, didn't he?

-Mm.

All my brothers' birthdays are in...in May.

It's 12th, 21st and 30th, and mine's in the middle.

And Dad managed to write out Ben's birthday card.

Um...

It says, "Thanks for all your help, Ben. Love, Dad."

And this one was my one, where it said, "Good luck at driving."

Kiss, kiss, and then he's put "Dad." Then you've got William's,

whose is the last birthday,

well, he didn't quite make it until William's birthday,

but he's put "Willsey". He put like a long exclamated...

-That's his nickname for him.

-Willsey, yep.

-Don't know, keep it all together?

-Yeah, put it all together.

Should be there.

When people come up to you in the streets and they're like,

they say, "Oh, hi, Tom.

"I'm really sorry about your dad," I don't mind it and I don't mind...

But then it just puts an awkward spin on the situation.

I'm like, "Yeah, thank you." But what do you say?

Do you say thank you? Do you say it's OK? I don't know how to reply to it.

And I'm like, "Yeah, yeah. It's OK."

Like, but then you don't want to say it's OK because it's not necessarily OK.

You just don't know what to say.

And I don't like it if my friends or family, if they don't want,

they kind of sometimes avoid talking about certain things

or they avoid saying certain things

because they think they might upset me, but I don't want people to be awkward like that

because I would speak openly about my dad all day, kind of thing,

and I wouldn't get upset because I know that

whenever anyone thinks about Rob Daley, they would just smile.

And...

one thing that's horrible was when it was my birthday,

and it was my first driving lesson.

Then Dad got really upset and angry that he couldn't come out

and watch me do my first driving lesson. That was hard.

Left a bit more. Whoa...

It's fine, I couldn't get over more otherwise I'd have hit that car.

Ah no, I'm going to be doing clutch control up here, if there's traffic.

Clutch control, yeah.

Check me out.

We always tend to have arguments about indication at roundabouts.

Go, it's give way to the right, you knob!

Tom!

I'm really close to my mum. I was close to her before,

but I guess, when something like this happens, it makes you even closer.

We're doing more things together that we wouldn't normally do.

She's driving with me, where normally it would be Dad doing that stuff.

She's been so good with everything.

The calendar for international competitions for Tom is unrelenting.

He only missed one training session after his dad died.

Where's he going on Friday?

To Shanghai, and off we go with the World Championships.

What do you want out of that?

A steady performance.

We've been working on this new list, obviously.

I'm hoping we can go to the World Championships, do a confident list.

He'll come away from that ready to begin the build-up

in to next year, which is 2012. It's come round pretty quick.

Did Tom appear, in any way,

did his performance change after Rob died?

Not really, no. Obviously, it's changed our training process.

We haven't done exactly what I would have done,

had there been no problem within the family scenario.

But because that's changed,

it means we haven't what I'd call a perfect build-up into this event.

His dad would have been mortified if he'd felt that

everybody had stopped because of the situation he was in.

So, he came back, and we've supported that,

as has the rest of diving.

So, I'm really pleased with that.

As always, Tom has compartmentalised his diving side from school life.

School is really busy as well. He's doing A-levels early.

He's trying to get that all finished by January.

So where to now?

Now, we are going to school. Just got changed as quick as I could.

Shoved everything in my bag, got all the bags I could possibly carry.

Got my diving stuff in here,

my diving bag, my school bag, got everything in it.

Hectic day, Tuesdays, but, yeah.

Now I'm going in for a Spanish lesson to start my second year of A-levels.

THEY SPEAK SPANISH

Straight back from school, Tom is packing for Shanghai.

And then shut the lid.

Debbie, what's it like, packing with Tom to go away for a month?

Um... He's quite erratic,

because he'll go from one thing to the next

without finishing the original thing he's getting ready for.

It's hard to keep him focused.

So... Surprisingly!

So, you've just got say, "Tom, we're doing your training kit first,

"doing your downtime clothes after."

Is that everything in there? I don't believe it.

-School books.

-Oh.

When do you do your homework?

All the time! Whenever I can, really.

It's, like, full-on, non-stop.

It's literally just...

Pages and pages.

Pages and pages.

Are you defending your title?

Yeah, this is my defending title.

To be honest, I think it's about going out there,

trying to do my individual dives as well as possible.

But always the competitive spirit comes in,

and I'll end up wanting to do more. But, yeah, we'll see what happens.

Tom is practising last-minute for his driving test,

but it's qualification for the Olympics that's preoccupying him.

A top eight finish in China will secure him a place at London 2012.

Qiu Bo is doing the front four-and-a-half really well.

He's doing ridiculously hard dives at the moment

and he's doing them very consistently too.

That's the main thing, to try to put pressure on the Chinese people.

They don't really like pressure, so if you put the pressure on them,

that's when, hopefully, they might buckle a little bit,

when you have to try and take advantage of them.

The most difficult thing about the front four-and-a-half is the fact

there's so much dive that you have to fit in.

You have to run down the board, you have to jump up steep,

you have squeeze into your tuck really tight,

you have to do all the spins and rotations.

The G-force is constantly trying to pull you out of your shapes.

It all comes down to doing it once.

That's the thing that scares me,

the fact I can train for however many hours you want.

But it's only one of each dive that counts.

Tom's greatest challenge in Shanghai,

is beating his arch rival Qiu Bo.

At 18 Qiu Bo is only a few months older than Tom.

He's already scored a record-breaking number of perfect-ten scores,

and is reputed to be the most dangerous contender

for Tom's world title.

The mop volume you do on your dives, the better they are.

When you've done a new dive,

and you've only done them, say, 100 times,

they're not going to be as good as someone like Qiu Bo

who's done them, say, 1,000 times, as he's been doing them for four years.

The Chinese have assembled the most formidable team ever.

Over 100 divers have been put through Chinese sports camps.

CHEERING

He seems to be, at the moment, coping very well.

Obviously, deep down, he must be feeling it,

losing your father, anybody who loses a father,

it's a difficult thing, especially at a young age like he is.

I think he will miss Rob in the crowd.

AUDIENCE GASPS

Oh, that's good.

Not his best.

I can't see him, unfortunately, medalling this time. But you never know.

Ooh, a bit of splash. Oh, bit of splash.

Two months after his father died,

Tom loses his World Championship title to Qiu Bo.

Tom came fifth overall in the individual ten metre.

But his position in the top eight

qualifies him for the London Olympics.

-REPORTER:

-What did you learn from the Chinese,

as they certainly responded at home in Shanghai?

Yeah, the Chinese have been good, diving fantastically here.

They've won every event.

The Chinese divers won all ten gold medals.

Qiu Bo registered 25 perfect tens,

scoring a world record of 609 points.

Yeah, he's had a horrible year, a horrible few weeks,

for him to come out and still perform is...

I mean, I lost a parent,

and I couldn't do it after only a few weeks,

to come back and carry on as normal, no way.

So yeah, he has done really well.

-Proud to be British, aren't we, today?

-Yeah.

THEY LAUGH

Amongst all the millions of Chinese.

Here we go. Ni hao, everyone.

The next day, Tom's commitments to the media and his fans continue.

He has over 850,000 fans on Chinese Twitter.

His agent, Jamie, believes exposure in China

is more significant for Tom than in Europe.

-Why is it, in photos, Chinese people always go...

-Yes, for victory.

Oh, victory, oh!

China is going to be a very important market for Tom over the next decade.

Why? Because diving, its home is in China.

As we saw yesterday at the Worlds, they won all the gold medals.

This is where, as a sport, it has the biggest impact on the planet.

It's very important that we do the right media

and commercial work here, to help him over the next decade.

Hi to all the QQ web users.

OK, so who do you think is the most beautiful Chinese female athlete?

THEY LAUGH

Er... Guo Jingjing.

Guo Jingjing. But too old for me!

THEY LAUGH

Lots of media call you the next David Beckham in the UK,

or maybe the Harry Potter from the platform.

I think, within China, it is a really unique opportunity.

The timing of Tom, his age, and China and sport,

is truly unique.

A very excited group of fans have won a competition just to meet Tom.

-Ni hao.

-Hello, Tom.

-Hello.

Did you watch yesterday?

-Yeah. You did pretty cool.

-Yeah? Thank you.

-You're great.

-Yes. OK.

I expect more than that.

Hopefully, next year.

You can do better in London.

Yeah, I hope so.

They're new dives.

CAMERAS CLICK

Cheers. Good.

Look here.

Cheese.

There you go. OK.

-Bye!

-Thank you.

Zai jian.

-Bye-bye.

-Zai jian.

-Bye.

Bless them!

THEY ALL SHOUT

I love Tom.

Support him. Support him forever, forever.

I will go to London.

Despite losing his World Championship title,

the commercial possibilities for Tom are endless.

Madame Tussauds have commissioned a waxwork

for an exhibition on Olympians,

and a biography is being published to mark Tom's 18th birthday.

We thought as well it would be interesting to try a different colour scheme.

I like the fact it is quite a close-up shot on the front

so you can actually see who it is.

And then, on the back, at least,

there's one people would normally associate me with, ie, no clothes!

THEY LAUGH

There's going to be a lot of noise around Tom Daley.

That's natural, because,

there are so many dimensions, if you like, to Tom on an interest level.

He is the pin-up for the teenage girls, there's no question of that.

Mums and dads have respect him for what he's achieved, because he's an A* student.

He's got pretty much A* in everything he's done.

He is the best he can be, he's a great role model.

Grandparents love him.

It's one of those, he's cross- generation, from that point of view.

But there are mutterings in the press

that maybe Tom is doing too much media work

and it's affecting his diving.

Even the head of British diving, the Russian coach Alexei Evangulov,

has publicly voiced his concerns.

I respect Alexei, he's one of the best diving coaches in the world.

He's got outstanding experience.

In his perfect world,

Tom Daley would not be doing media or commercial work,

he would be - forgive me, Alexei, for saying this -

but in probably northern China or northern Russia,

just diving 24/7.

And that's fine to say that, but there is a difference.

That isn't who Tom Daley is.

It's early September, and Tom's going back to school

to start the final year of his A-levels.

Trousers. There we go, right.

I'll hang this up over here so that it's all ready in the morning.

This is my dad area.

-That's some of my dad's ashes are in there.

-Really?

-Yeah.

Just a little heart.

When I first got given it, I was bit like...

..oh, my God, like, it's really weird.

It's weird to think that your dad's in there, kind of thing.

But it's always good to have, he's always there, then, isn't he?

Right, I think I'm ready for school, by the looks of it.

-Are you excited about going back to school?

-Yeah. I guess so.

I'm kind of looking forward to going back to school.

There's so many things going on.

Loads of competitions we've got to go to.

We've got a three-week training camp at the end of the year in Australia.

Then we've got the National Championships in January.

Then three weeks at the World Cup.

Then we've got four weeks of all the World Series.

Then we've got lots of training camps in between that.

Two weeks in Plymouth for a training camp.

Then the European Championships in May.

Then we've got the National Championships.

Then we've got a two-week training camp.

Warm weather training camp.

Then home for two weeks, and then a two-week pre-Olympic camp.

And then we're into the Olympics. So, it's a long year.

Tom and Pete Waterfield hope to represent Great Britain

in the ten metre synchro in the London Olympics.

With Pete based in Southampton, and Tom in Plymouth,

they've had few opportunities to train together.

Go for that entry.

Legs up, and through.

Really happy.

The best one of each of the dives that they did

was really world-class.

Yeah. Nice.

-I haven't been getting any like that.

-No?

It must be you.

Bringing the best out of me.

Yeah, it was good, considering we haven't trained together for ages.

Yeah, it's looking really good, actually.

It looks really good.

Can't wait to get them up on the ten metre.

184 days,

three hours, 36 minutes and 19, 18, 17 seconds,

until the Olympics.

Now, that's scary.

Well, most nights I think about diving in 2012.

It's that kind of thing where you get yourself all hyped up,

and your heart's going all the time.

But I try not to think about it too much,

because you let yourself get carried away.

You just have to focus on the now rather than the future.

And from now on,

the pressure will keep mounting.

The Diving World Cup is Tom and Pete's next chance

to pit themselves against the Chinese

with the home crowd behind them.

And as the qualifying competition for the ten metre synchro event at the London Olympics,

the pressure is on all divers to secure a place.

-Who have you come to see tonight?

-Tom.

Guess who!?

-I love him so much.

-You love him so much, do you? Why?

Because he's beautiful.

Excuse me, who have you come to see tonight?

We've come to see Tom Daley obviously.

Tom Daley, yay!

Who have you come to see tonight?

-My son.

-Who's that?

-Peter Waterfield.

-Are you Pete's dad?

-Yeah. Don't I look like him?!

I wanted to make him a millionaire

and I just gave him my looks.

It's a bit sad, really.

-But, rock on for tonight, I'm sure they're going to do well.

-Good luck.

So, what are you predicting for tonight?

Bronze.

Gold medal would be quite nice, but...

CHEERING AND WHISTLING

The Chinese win the gold in the ten metre synchro.

Tom and Pete score the lowest marks of all the competitors

for the front four-and-a-half.

How are you feeling?

Well, it was a fantastic competition.

And one dive, that's all it takes.

At this level, it's always just one dive.

Unfortunately, Tom Daley and his partner Pete didn't get a medal.

Do you know where they came?

They came seventh, I think.

And what about the Chinese, when you look at them,

do you dread them going up on the board?

Well, no, because, at the end of the day, they are the best.

You've got to say the best is the best.

To us, a silver medal is the world's gold, if you know what I mean.

How does that make you feel about the Olympics?

Nerve-racking.

Because there's so many of them,

they just bring them out like a conveyor belt.

That is, unfortunately, what we're up against.

But one dive, as I say, one dive England, one dive China,

one dive America.

However drops that dive, someone's in with a good shot.

I know they can do it.

With the Olympics looming on the horizon,

Tom is carrying a huge weight on his young shoulders.

You kind of just feel quite lonely on the end of the diving board.

Because, you're there, it's you,

there's no-one else that can help you now.

You know everyone's looking at you, everyone's judging you.

You feel quite vulnerable.

MUFFLED TANNOY ANNOUNCEMENT

MUFFLED CHEERING

And how has the last year been for you?

-It's been a terrible year in many ways.

-Yeah.

Well, this past year has been hard.

And then it's been good at the same time.

Because obviously it was really hard losing my dad,

he was a massive part of my diving career.

He was a massive part of my life.

But then, qualifying for the Olympics was just amazing.

And that's the kind of thing that I know he would be proud of me,

and going into this competition, I know he'll be here,

he'll be there watching.

I'm Tom's dad.

Tom, come and give me a cuddle. Please, come on, please.

Dad, you'll make me cry.

APPLAUSE

My dad always taught me

to not care what anyone else thinks of what you're doing,

because I know that I'm training as hard as I possibly can,

nd my dad, if he was here, he would definitely have been encouraging me,

saying, the fact you're training hard, you're putting all the hours in,

you're doing really well.

Whatever happens, you've just got to be happy with your own performance

and try your best, and not worry what everyone else thinks.

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