Britain’s Tom Daley was dethroned as Olympic champion on Monday but took an emotional silver medal with partner Noah Williams in the men’s synchronised 10m platform behind China’s Lian Junjie and Yang Hao. It was a fifth medal in five Olympics for 30-year-old Daley, who won gold with Matty Lee in the same event at the pandemic-postponed Tokyo Games three years ago. Lian and Yang, who have won at the last three world championships, established their dominance with their first dive and never looked like giving up the lead.
They finished with a score of 490.35, ahead of Daley and Williams on 463.44, and Canada’s Rylan Wiens and Nathan Zsombor-Murray on 422.13.
Daley and Williams were locked in a battle for second with the Canadian pair but pulled away over the second half of the competition.
It was an emotional medal for both of the Britons, but especially for Williams who was choked by tears as he recalled his former coach Dave Jenkins, who died in 2021 after the last Olympics in Tokyo.
Daley, whose father Rob died of cancer in 2011, told the BBC: “I’ve never seen Noah cry in my whole life, I know how much today means to him.
“It’s very sad Dave is not here, but I know Dave and my dad would both be so proud to see us here today.”
Daley made his Olympic debut as a 14-year-old at the 2008 Beijing Games and won his first Olympic medal with a bronze at the 2012 London Games.
He took another bronze in Rio, then another at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics before finally winning gold in the men’s synchronised 10m platform event at those Games.
Daley, an LGBTQ activist who is married to Hollywood scriptwriter Dustin Lance Black, had taken a break from the sport until his six-year-old son Rob — named after his late father — told him he wanted to see him dive again.
“It’s just so special. This time last year deciding to come back, never mind not knowing if I would make the synchro team.
“Doing it in front of my son who asked me to come back is so special. I now have one of every colour. I’ve completed the set.”
Daley and Black have a second son, Phoenix Rose.
Daley’s long-time coach Jane Figueiredo said: “Excited, fearless, just over the moon for both of them.
“There’s been a lot going on behind the scenes for both of them, to come and achieve a silver medal is absolutely brilliant. China was just too good.
“We hung in there, but it was brilliant.”
The Chinese team never looked like losing but Lian said they were aware that Daley and Williams were breathing down their necks.
“We feel very excited about winning,” he said.
“There was a lot of pressure during the competition because the British team were very consistent. They were so close.”
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