nick
April 13th, 2010, 03:05 AM
That little boy of 10 who would quiver in fear, crawl the 1.5 metres to the edge lest he fall off sideways and sob while battling the demons in his head is now 15, a world champion and adding more twists and difficulties to his dives to beat the best.
But Daley will let you into a little secret. Every dive – every one of the 60 or so he does every week in training – still terrifies him. Somewhere, deep down, Daley’s tears are hidden, but his fears are real.
When divers take off from the 10m platform they are travelling at speeds up to 35mph and hit the water within 1.6 seconds with forces of up to 24Gs. The water, even with the aerated bubbles that break the surface tension and help spotting of entry, is hard, often feeling like a block of concrete. Even perfectly executed “rip” dives, where the legs follow the trajectory of the hands upon entry, are painful, says Daley. He says he is blackened with bruising and hurting all over when he starts back diving after the shortest of breaks. Hand and thumb dislocations are commonplace, coughing up blood is not unusual.
But the tenseness upon entry, and the soreness, and the sprains and injuries, and even the two very nasty head smashes into the diving platform that Daley has suffered come well after the ecstasy.
For Daley says it is upon take-off from the board when his stomach suddenly drops that the addictive nature of his sport emerges.
“The feeling going off the board is like being on a rollercoaster, when the stomach drops it is like doing the loop to loop on a corkscrew rollercoaster and that’s why it is quite addictive,” Daley says.
But at the top? “I have butterflies in my stomach all the time and that is why it never gets boring. There is 100 steps up to the top of the diving board and when I go up there I try and focus, and I don’t stand on the edge too long, I don’t look down, I just count 'one, two, three go’ and have confidence in myself.”
Daley won the World Championship 10m platform in Rome last year.
Full story here (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/diving/7582808/Agony-and-ecstasy-help-to-put-diver-Tom-Daley-on-top-of-the-world.html)
But Daley will let you into a little secret. Every dive – every one of the 60 or so he does every week in training – still terrifies him. Somewhere, deep down, Daley’s tears are hidden, but his fears are real.
When divers take off from the 10m platform they are travelling at speeds up to 35mph and hit the water within 1.6 seconds with forces of up to 24Gs. The water, even with the aerated bubbles that break the surface tension and help spotting of entry, is hard, often feeling like a block of concrete. Even perfectly executed “rip” dives, where the legs follow the trajectory of the hands upon entry, are painful, says Daley. He says he is blackened with bruising and hurting all over when he starts back diving after the shortest of breaks. Hand and thumb dislocations are commonplace, coughing up blood is not unusual.
But the tenseness upon entry, and the soreness, and the sprains and injuries, and even the two very nasty head smashes into the diving platform that Daley has suffered come well after the ecstasy.
For Daley says it is upon take-off from the board when his stomach suddenly drops that the addictive nature of his sport emerges.
“The feeling going off the board is like being on a rollercoaster, when the stomach drops it is like doing the loop to loop on a corkscrew rollercoaster and that’s why it is quite addictive,” Daley says.
But at the top? “I have butterflies in my stomach all the time and that is why it never gets boring. There is 100 steps up to the top of the diving board and when I go up there I try and focus, and I don’t stand on the edge too long, I don’t look down, I just count 'one, two, three go’ and have confidence in myself.”
Daley won the World Championship 10m platform in Rome last year.
Full story here (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/diving/7582808/Agony-and-ecstasy-help-to-put-diver-Tom-Daley-on-top-of-the-world.html)