Tom Daley Pulls Off Decent Performance at Beijing 2008
Tom in his Team GB outfit, alongside dad Rob.
The Beijing 2008 Olympics didn’t start off particularly well for Tom Daley, as he and Blake Aldridge finished a disappointing last place in the Men’s 10m event. The synchronisation in particular wasn’t what put them last, but it was seemingly their entries into the water that let them down.
Tom however, maintained a smile, admitting: “We just had a bad day, we didn't dive very well; it was quite disappointing. There was a lot of pressure on me and I was very nervous. But it's an experience which will be good for 2012”.
He was then given a much-needed, much-deserved break of eleven days in between the two events he was participating in, meaning he could put the dissatisfaction of the synchro event behind him, and explore Beijing’s attractions with his family, while still fitting in some training for the big day.
The eleven days soon passed, and Tom was ready to compete in the preliminaries of the men’s 10m event. He was competing alongside fellow Brit, Peter Waterfield, and both qualified for the semi-finals, Tom in particular executing some exceptional dives. He ended up finishing 12th out of the 30 Olympians (18th place being the last qualifying place), while Peter finished even higher up, in 4th, despite his lingering shoulder injury.
The next day held the semi-final event, in which Tom was to give an even more outstanding performance for his calibre, his fourth and fifth dives in particular showing his true talent. He landed 8th position, this time 12th being the last qualifying place, gaining a respectable total score of 458.60. Peter, however, finished excruciatingly close, but not close enough to the 12th place target, falling short just by one place. Among other qualifiers were the two Chinese divers Huo Liang and Zhou Luxin, and Americans Thomas Finchum and David Boudia.
“Coming into the semi-final I was hungry to get into the final”, Tom said. “I'm going into the final now to enjoy myself and get the whole experience of what an Olympic final is going to be like because in London 2012 that is what I am aiming for”.
And indeed, he did enjoy himself. The final came along, and his first dive left him in joint fourth position (along with Columbia’s Juan Guillermo Uran) after round one of six. He then continued to execute some more high-quality dives, all scoring above 75 points. However, the experience and talent of some of the other divers showed through, as Tom dropped slowly down the table, although not disappointedly.
Tom’s final dive came, and unfortunately he entered the water just short of vertical, giving him a score of 64.60. At that point, Daley was back up to 2nd, but there were still 7 more divers to go, most of them greatly impressing, particularly Gleb Galperin of Russia, scoring 102.6 (resulting in a bronze medal), and Matthew Mitcham of Australia. He scored an incredible 112.10 out of a possible 114, securing the gold, that being the first diving gold for Australia since 1924. Zhou Luxin’s stunning performance earned him a silver medal for China.
All in all, Tom’s performance was far from the quality of that in the synchro event, and he can take the experience away proudly, now having had a taste of the Olympics, in preparation for the games at London in 2012: “I've gained loads of experience in Beijing - this has been a big bonus going into 2012 as I now know what the Olympics are like. I'm going to work on some harder dives and increasing my tariffs so I can be more competitive”.
He’s not having too long a rest now, though, as he has much more ahead of him before the games do take place on his home land: “I've got two days off, then it's back in the pool and training for the World Junior Championships which I think I leave for on the 12th of September”.
Good luck to Tom in the future, and let’s hope he can claim a medal in the London 2012 Olympic Games, when he will be just 18 years of age.
