Olympic champion diver Tom Daley has been revealing the harsh treatment he got from sports bosses on his bid to win Olympic golds in a candid, upcoming film on his life
Emotional Tom Daley has revealed in a new documentary how he was ordered to lose weight by sports bosses and it contributed to him having an eating disorder.
In March this year the Olympic diving star, 31, had told for the first time how he suffered from “all kinds of different issues around body dysmorphia and bulimia” during his career.
But, in his new film, he goes further and explains what happened. Speaking in Tom Daley 1.6 Seconds he says: “At the end of 2011 I was told that I would have to lose weight by our performance director at British diving, and that I was overweight and that I needed to look slimmer, leaner and more like I did in 2008 it was the first time where I felt that I was being looked at and judged not for how I did in the diving pool, but for how I looked. I took then some quite drastic measures to make sure that the food did not stay in my stomach let’s put it that way.
“A rational person would know that I wasn’t fat, but that was all that I could think about in the build up to the Olympic Games, I had a diary that I would write in, and at the top of it, I’d write the date and my weight. I was kind of left on my own devices, and kind of left with that struggle by myself, because even when I was having these meetings with my sports psychologist, I didn’t know how to bring that out, because every time I said it out loud, I knew it felt silly, but in my head, it was the biggest thing that I would always think about every day, every time I made a decision about what I was going to eat, if I was going to eat it and then get myself so hungry that I would end up eating so much and binging to the point where I was then so guilty that I then had to do something about that.”
Tom goes on to say he struggled to open up about how he felt to anyone, a theme that ran through the early part of his career when he often felt alone.
He adds: “I still feel like ashamed talking about it now, because, like, once you’re on the other side of it, it seems so easy just to stop and ask for help, but when you’re in it, you feel like you can’t be helped.
“Guys didn’t have eating disorders. Guys didn’t have any problems with their mental health. Guys were meant to be these macho things that get on with anything and you just keep going. I was not that I didn’t know who I could talk to. The running theme here is that I felt very alone in all of the things that I was dealing with.”
Tom’s close friend Sophie Lee also references the issues when he was experiencing times in his life when he was highly stressed. She said: “It was more than just an eating disorder that was really a reflection on how much stress and anxiety he was going through at the time getting to London, 2012.”
Tom is Britain’s most decorated diver and ended his career with five Olympic medals to his name. He was just 14 when he went to Beijing to compete in 2008 and returned a fifth time in Paris last year, where he picked up a silver and his two sons Robbie and Phoenix got to see him in the Olympic pool.
At London 2012, shortly after the weight jibes from British diving bosses, he managed to win a bronze medal.
He has now retired from diving and is spending more time at home with husband Dustin Lance Black and their sons Robbie and Phoenix.
Looking to the future, Tom tells the film: “My whole life has been about diving. My whole life has been about perfecting those 1.6 seconds. I spent four years training for something that goes by in less than 10 seconds in total, and I wouldn’t change a thing.
“It’s been the best 23 years that I can imagine, and I’ve had the best time, meeting the most amazing people, traveling to incredible places. Although, yes, sometimes it has been incredibly tough, and it has been challenging, and there’s been times where I felt like I couldn’t carry on. I persevered.
“I think if there’s one thing that I’m excited about, it’s being able to share this with Robbie and Phoenix and be able to have that memory that I can show them for the rest of my life, and be able to have shared that with them. I feel very lucky to have people around me now that I feel really comfortable that I can speak to about anything and everything.
“But I think that also comes from me letting my guard down, because for the longest time my guard was up.”
* Tom Daley 1.6 Seconds will launch on discovery+ in the UK & Ireland on June 1 before premiering on Really and TNT Sports.
For help and support on eating disorders contact Beat Eating Disorders on 0808 801 0677.