• 'Baby' Daley can't wait to come of age in Beijing

"If he said it once, he said it half-a dozen times.

'I just can't wait,' smiled Tom Daley, eyes bright and wide, and you'd have said he sounded like a big kid if it wasn't for the fact that, er, actually, he's a little kid.

The 14-year-old has smiled and enthused and talked for Britain this past eight months; now all he wants is to dive for Britain.

You couldn't help smiling at those sunny photos of our youngest - and already most storied Beijing Olympian - on arrival at the Olympic Village this week.

Everything, he reckoned breathlessly, was amazing and massive and fantastic.

How about getting into that Water Cube pool. 'Can't wait,' he said.

Just what we wanted to see and hear; that our Tom is just ready to have the time of his young life.

For months, he's handled the media circus which was bound to attend the remarkable tale of the second youngest British Olympian in history - he'll be 14 years 81 days when he and Blake Aldridge dive in the synchronised 10m platform final a week next Monday - with wonderful patience, polite thank yous and a thousand assertions that 'I'm not expecting a medal, just aiming for a good performance and if anything else happens, it'll be a bonus.'" [Read More]

• Tom unfazed by Olympic challenge

"Plymouth's Tom Daley looked a picture of concentration as he continued his preparations for the Olympic Games in Beijing.

But the 14-year-old showed he was unfazed by the pressure of being the youngest competitor in the Games as he shared a joke with fellow Westcountry Olympian Tonia Couch yesterday.

With the start the Games little over a week away, Team GB have well and truly arrived in the Chinese capital. The diving squad were the first to practise at the city's National Aquatic Centre this week, which will host diving and swimming events.

Tom, current European and British senior men's 10m platform champion, will compete in the 10m synchronised and individual events at the Games. Meanwhile, Tonia, 19, will contest the women's platform synchro pairs with Stacie Powell as well as individual women's platform events.

Tom told the official Games website: “The venue is fantastic. Though it's my first Olympics, I am not nervous, but very, very excited.”

Tom had been virtually assured of his place in the Olympic team since becoming the youngest person to win a European Championships in Eindhoven in March, but received confirmation from the British Olympic Association last month.

Tonia, meanwhile, clinched one of the final places on the team in a contest of high drama at Leeds' John Charles Centre for Sport last month. She finished second in a group of five international divers who were competing for one of just two places.

The Plymouth pair made a high-profile arrival in China with their Great Britain team-mates earlier this week, with photographers and television cameras greeting them after they landed from London. They are among 19 Westcountry-based members of Team GB.

The diving squad will now head west to Xi'an to train before returning for the competition, from August 8 to 24." [Source]

• Photo Shoot + Avatars

I've added 9 pictures from a photo shoot Tom did earlier this month during the Team GB Kitting Out. Enjoy! :)


Team GB Kitting Out Portraits (x009)

I also made a few avatars for everyone to use on TomBoards.com. There are 11 in all and hopefully you all will like them! You can view them here, you need to register to view forum messages, though.

• Has Olympic hopeful Tom Daley found himself a diving 'belle'?

"As a member of the Olympic team, he has more serious goals than your average 14-year-old.

But Tom Daley still has time to make a few schoolboy plans - such as one day, when he's older, marrying a good sport like his diving teammate Tonia Couch.

Tom has developed a firm friendship with the 19-year-old, who like him is from Plymouth.

Pictures below show the pair larking about in Beijing yesterday, letting off a little steam before the 2008 Games start next week.

And on his Facebook webpage he has posted a photo of them pouting in their Olympic kit.

On his Bebo webpage, Tom describes Miss Couch as one of his best friends.

He says of her and some other girls: 'Never want to lose you, your (sic) a bunch of lovely girls, and soo funny, if I could I would marry one of you.

'They are always there for me when i am feeling sad and they always make me laugh !! They are legends !! Love you girls !!!'

The Olympic diving team is settling in at the Chinese National Aquatic Centre, known as the Water Cube." [Read More]

• TomBoards.com

Hey everyone. Just wanted to make a post stating that I've opened a new section of the site: the message board! It's a message board dedicated to Tom (you of course can post other stuff as well, though) and I thought it would make a really nice addition to the site. It's located at TomBoards.com and I would really appreciate if all of you would stop by and make a few posts!



Also wanted to say that I'm working on putting up a new layout and the full site. I currently have a layout made and coded, I just need to finish up all of the content and it'll be ready to put up. So be sure to keep an eye out for that as well.

• Becks wants to help diving wonder kid deal with fame

"Soccer ace David Beckham has offered to help budding diver Tom Daley handle fame.

After meeting Beck’s manager Simon Fuller, Tom’s father Rob revealed that the 33-year-old ManU star would help the 14 year old learn how to deal with fame.

“David is apparently a big fan and wants to get together with Tom,” The Sun quoted Rob as saying.

“They have quite a bit in common as he was brilliant at a young age and very high profile,” he added.

Rob from Plymouth, Devon, said that he is poised to sign a deal that could earn Olympic hope Tom millions." [Source]

• Tom set for pool glory

"British schoolboy diving sensation Tom Daley, 14, smiles as he arrives at Beijing airport yesterday to prepare for the Olympic Games.

The diving and men's gymnastics teams are the first of Great Britain's athletes to arrive in China ahead of the games' opening on August 8. They were taken straight to the Olympic village where Tom, the youngest member of the GB team, said: "I can't wait to get in the pool."

However he seemed most excited about the dining hall.

He said: "It is the size of four football pitches and there is every food imaginable." [Source]

• Coach Banks: Let young Daley have some fun

"The coach of teenage British diving sensation Tom Daley has played down the prospect of the British teen sensation winning a medal at the Beijing Olympics.

But the way in which Andy Banks presented a “media stance” making no mention of Olympic success left open the possibility that he and his young charge may have some private goals they do not wish to share with the rest of the world.

Daley, 14, has been in the spotlight ever since booking his place for Beijing, where he is set to become Britain’s second-youngest Olympian of all-time.

However, public interest in the exploits of the schoolboy from Plymouth, south-west England, rocketed when he became European champion in the 10m platform event in Eindhoven in March.

Ever since then the line from the Daley camp has been that he is going to Beijing solely for the experience he can gain to help him get ready for his primary goal of the 2012 Games in London.

Banks was adamant that “if everybody in the world dives as well as they can do, including Tom, then we won’t be on the rostrum”." [Read More]

• The Secret Diary of Tom Daley: Burn-out? I honestly don't feel there's a problem

"By the time you read this, I shall be in China. Third time this year but this is the real thing, the Olympic Games, the biggest sporting event on the planet. I can't wait.

After the Olympic trials I went on holiday with my family to Majorca for a week and when we came back I was hungrier than ever for the Olympics. A week without diving is a week that makes me realise how much it means to me.

I've since been in a synchro camp training with my partner, Blake Aldridge, then up to Sheffield for a media day, lots more interviews, filming, so that when we get to China I won't be bothered. It's all over now until after the competition.

Our director of performance, Steve Foley, went on BBC Radio 5 Live to say that if it wasn't all properly managed for me, there was a definite danger of burn-out. I can understand why he was saying it but I don't feel like there's any problem.

I have such a good team looking after me, great support from my family, a new agent, the British federation's media officer who is very supportive and people like Steve. It's all under wraps. I'm very well looked after and if any of them thought it was all getting too much, they would tell me.

I am not feeling any greater pressure because, as I've said all along, I am not going to get a medal. I'm not expecting that. Never was. There was greater pressure going to China for the World Cup earlier in the year because I had to win a place at the Olympics then. And that's all this year was about, going to the Games." [Read More]

• Olympic countdown - 14 days - Daley's dream

"On 11 August Britain's teenage diving sensation Tom Daley will look to equal Kusuo Kitamura's record of being the youngest male to win an Olympic gold medal in an individual event.

Kitamura was 14 when he won the 1500m freestyle at the 1932 Los Angeles Games as a largely teenage Japanese team claimed five of the six swimming titles.

And Daley, who only turned 14 in May, has an outside chance of emulating that achievement in Beijing.

The Plymouth schoolboy became the youngest winner of the British senior men's 10m platform title earlier this year and followed that with by becoming the youngest European Champion in March.

But he faces stiff competition from the host nation in the individual event and has said he is going to Beijing for the experience and to enjoy himself.

However, he has a much better chance of winning a medal in the 10m synchronised competition.

Daley and his partner, Blake Aldridge, are also British champions and broke the British record to win bronze at a World Cup event earlier this year." [Source]

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