Tom Daley—the 30-year-old British diver who, remarkably, has competed in five Olympic Games —is officially retiring. The news arrives on the heels of a stellar final showing in Paris: Alongside diving partner Noah Williams, Daley nabbed silver in the men’s 10-meter synchronized platform. The medal, Daley’s fifth after bronzes in London and Rio de Janeiro, plus a gold and a bronze in Tokyo, was more than just his last: It meant he’d “completed the colors,” he tells me with a grin.
(Another feather in his Paris cap: He was also chosen as a flag bearer for Great Britain at Paris’s riverine opening ceremony .) We’re sitting in an anteroom at Soho House Paris, where Daley has met with me—extremely punctually, it’s worth noting; he appeared at 2:00 p.m.
on the dot—to discuss his milestone news and exemplary career. “It feels very, very surreal,” he says. “I felt so incredibly nervous going into this, knowing it was my last Olympics.
There was a lot of pressure and expectation. I was eager for it to be done..
. but when I walked out, and saw my husband [Lance] and kids [Robbie and Phoenix] and my friends and family in the audience, I was like, You know what? This is exactly why I did this. I’m here, and no matter what happens in the competition itself, I’m going to be happy.
“It was emotional at the end, up there on the platform, knowing it was going to be my last competitive dive,” he continues. “But I have to make the decision at some point, .