The 2024 Olympic Games in Paris are over, and fans are already looking ahead to LA 2028. But one Olympic institution will not compete in Los Angeles: British diver Tom Daley, who announced his retirement on Monday.
Daley, a five-time Olympian and five-time Olympic medalist, has been a fixture at the Olympic Games since his first competition in 2008 at the age of 14. But the 30-year-old diver has decided his career should end. Daley told British Vogue on Monday that now was “the right time to call it a day.”
Shortly before the start of the 2024 Games, Daley won his fifth Olympic medal, a silver, in the men’s 10-meter synchronized diving with partner Noah Williams. Daley was also selected as one of Great Britain’s flag bearers for the opening ceremony, alongside rower Helen Glover.
Daley won his first Olympic medal in 2012 when he took bronze in the 10m platform diving in front of his home crowd in London. He followed that up with another bronze medal in the 10m synchronized diving with partner Daniel Goodfellow. At Tokyo 2021, Daley had his best Olympics yet, taking another bronze medal in the individual event but his first gold with partner Matty Lee in the pairs event.
Daley, who came out as gay in 2013, is also an important figure in the LGBTQ+ community, particularly in England. He married his husband, Oscar-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, in 2015. The couple have two children; Daley has said that his older son Robert was the one who convinced him to compete again in Paris after the Tokyo Olympics.
Daley is also known for knitting and crocheting in the stands at the Olympics after discovering the hobby during the Covid-19 pandemic.
In Paris, this meant knitting a personalized sweater with the theme of the Paris Olympic Games.
After returning to England on Monday, Daley spoke to the BBC shortly after the Vogue interview was published and expressed his emotion at the end of his career.
“It’s always hard when you say goodbye to your sport,” he told the BBC. “But you know, I think it’s the right time. This year felt like a bonus and I got to compete in front of my family and my kids and I got to be flag bearer, so every time I got to tick off a bucket list item.”
