The 27-year-old diver earned a bronze in the men’s 10m platform final on Saturday afternoon in Tokyo.
To clinch his podium spot, Daley put up some of the highest individual dive scores of his entire Olympic career, with a contingent of Great Britain’s athletes cheering him on in the stands.
But he faded in the latter half of the six rounds as China’s Cao Yuan and Yang Jian, the world champion, overtook him for gold and silver.
U.S. divers Brandon Loschiavo and Jordan Windle came in 11th and ninth, respectively, telling PEOPLE afterward that while the result wasn’t what they envisioned, the experience was a “blast.”
“Fighting the good fight is sometimes all you can really ask for,” Loschiavo said.
Going into the weekend, Daley was already an Olympic champion after winning his first-ever gold with partner Matty Lewis in the men’s synchronized 10m platform on July 26.
“And my husband said to me after Rio [in 2016] that, obviously I was extremely disappointed. And he said to me that ‘maybe you weren’t meant to win gold this time because your son was meant to watch you win an Olympic gold medal,’ " Daley said. “And the fact that I did that and then also another individual medal, which makes it four — my husband and my son, I’ve got to thank for so much of this along with my coaches and support team.”
The decorated diver has been a star of a different sort at these Olympics, too: During downtime at the diving venue,he’s been knittingand then sharing his creations on an increasingly popular Instagram page.
“I knit only in the prelims. I knit because there’s such a long time between the dives, it’s really hard to switch off from the diving,” Daley said earlier this week.
Daley has been knitting all kinds of things in Japan: a Great Britain-emblazoned holder for his synchronized medal and a Great Britain-emblazoned cardigan to help him remember this experience and even, yes, a sweater for a friend’s dog.
Tom Daley.Clive Rose/Getty
“I can just be in the moment and just keep going, row after row after row. I think it really helped me,” he said Friday. “Take Rio, for example. In the semifinals I didn’t start off so well and it kind of like spiraled. Whereas [today], I was able to kind of step out of that.”
“Also, I feel like I’m in a different space now, perspective-wise,” he continued. “Whether I do a good dive or a bad dive, that dive is done. Moving on to the next one and the next one is what counts. You can’t change anything.”
Tom Daley and Matty Lee.Clive Rose/Getty
After his gold medal win last week, Daley told PEOPLE as he spoke with reporters that a “massive turning point” had been marriage to screenwriterDustin Lance Blackand fatherhood. The pair welcomed a son,Robbie, in 2018.
“I realized that whether I do really well or whether I do terribly in the pool, that I can go home to a husband and son that loves me regardless,” Daley said then. “And that feeling that and knowing that and knowing that that love is unconditional to go and stand on that diving board, I can take that pressure off of myself and I can actually enjoy it and be like, You know what, I’m doing this because I love to do it and how I dive in the pool doesn’t define me.”
To learn more about Team USA, visitTeamUSA.org. Watch the Tokyo Olympics now on NBC.
source: people.com
