British diver Tom Daley, a celebrity in the United Kingdom, announced his retirement from swimming on Monday after winning a silver medal in the synchronized 10-meter platform event at the Paris Olympics alongside his teammate Noah Williams.
In an interview published today by Vogue magazine, the 30-year-old athlete said that he felt it was the “right time to quit,” although he admitted that the end of his successful career was sad.
“It was emotional, up there on the platform, knowing it was going to be my last competitive dive,” said Daley, who was joined in the stands by her husband Lance and the couple’s two children, as well as other family and friends.
The athlete, one of the first to openly declare himself gay in the United Kingdom through a YouTube video, confessed that he went to the Paris event “incredibly nervous”, as he already knew that these would be his last Olympic Games, after making his debut in Beijing in 2008 and competing in four more.
Daley went viral at the last Tokyo Olympics for his love of knitting, after being caught on camera in the stands knitting pieces by hand; which led him to launch his own brand “Made with Love” and now, as he confirmed in the interview, he has enrolled in a design institute in Los Angeles, to “learn to sew” and launch himself into the world of fashion.
In addition to his silver in Paris, Daley also has a gold and a bronze from Tokyo 2020, as well as two third places from London 2012 and Rio 2016, making him the most successful diver and one of the most decorated athletes on the Great Britain and Northern Ireland Olympic team.