Daley looks to shine at his home Olympic Games
Updated: 2011-07-27 08:16
By Lei Lei (China Daily)
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Britain's Thomas Daley competes in the men's 10m platform diving final at the 14th FINA World Championships in Shanghai, July 24, 2011. [Photo/Agencies] |
SHANGHAI - After being dethroned at the Shanghai FINA World Championships, young British diving star Thomas Daley has set his sights on preparing for the 2012 Olympic Games on home soil.
"The next Olympic Games are going to be incredible, because not every athlete gets the chance to compete in an Olympic Games, let alone in your home country. So it's going to be very exciting. I can't wait to go there and see what happens," the 17-year-old Daley told China Daily on Monday in Shanghai.
"My dream is to win a medal (at the London Olympics), but it's just all about what happens on the day because there are about eight to 10 divers that can get medal. It's going to be very tough competition."
At the Shanghai worlds, Daley, the 2009 men's 10m platform world champion, finished fifth in his favorite event and settled for the sixth in the synchro event with partner Peter Waterfield.
Although going back home without a medal, Daley is satisfied with the results.
"The result is OK. I've done what I came here to do," he said.
"Medals would have been nice, but I did consistent dives. There wasn't anything too bad. We are a little bit disappointed, but there wasn't anything that I could be annoyed about because there wasn't anything too bad."
Daley competed at the Shanghai event despite the death of his father from cancer in May.
"It has been a tough couple of months. I came to the World Championships because it's the sport I love to do and it's all my dad wanted me to do. That's why I'm here today competing. Now I just go forward and look towards next year," he said.
Learning to swim at the age of three, Daley picked up diving at seven.
After achieving a series of good results, he became a household name in Britain and even in China.
He was invited to start a micro-blog on qq.com and the number of his followers has reached almost 350,000.
Daley is expected to be one of the biggest medal hopes for his country at the 2012 London Olympics and the pressure from the home crowd is expected to be enormous.
"There is always pressure in any event, especially in home competitions, but you have to do your best to do the six dives as best as you can," he said.
Besides training, Daley is studying for an A level at school.
"It's quite tough (to balance training and study), but you just have to manage the time as well as possible," he said.
As for a future career, Daley said he would like to be a TV presenter.
"I'd like to go to university. I just don't quite know what (to study) yet. But I'd like to go there and hopefully become a TV presenter. Because I've been doing media from a young age, so I'd like to do it," he said.
The busy training and study schedule has left him with little time to find a girlfriend.
"I don't know (what kind of girl I like). Maybe someone that is very nice. Someone that understands that I have to be diving and that's the thing that comes first," Daley said, laughing.
"I don't have a girlfriend now. I'm always too busy, always training, always at school, so probably not before 2012."
China Daily