Sixteen years ago, when I first met Tom Daley during the school holidays in Plymouth, he produced a string of nonchalant catchphrases, including “blah-di-blah”, while addressing his growing fame and revealing that his two brothers kept telling him he was “rubbish” as he prepared for his first Olympic Games.
Daley, who was only 13, had just become the youngest-ever European diving champion and he admitted finding it strange that he should feature in glossy magazines before the 2008 Olympics in Beijing: “It’s weird. Normally I’m the one pulling out pictures of athletes to put on my wall. Now younger kids will be seeing my picture.”
