"Olympic diving star Tom Daley made a splash at a girls’ school in Caversham.
The 14-year-old 10m platform European Champion, who became Britain’s youngest Olympian since 1960 in Beijing last summer, treated 24 lucky students from Queen Anne’s School in Henley Road to a money-can’t-buy diving masterclass.
Daley, from Plymouth, was at the school after it won a nationwide competition through school meals provider Sodexo, correctly guessing that he trains for three-and-a-half hours every day.
The Olympian told the Post: “It’s been a real good experience coming here and all the girls here have done extremely well with what someone would do in 10 lessons in just 15 minutes.
“This is the first diving lesson I have taken and normally I’m the one who’s being shouted at by the coach, but I really enjoyed taking the sessions.
“It’s also definitely a plus coming to this school being full of girls.
“It’s nice to pass on the knowledge and show them how I do it, but I think I’ll be a diver for a little bit longer before becoming a coach.”
He added: “It’s great that Sodexo are doing this and putting across the image of healthy eating amongst schools as well as helping me do my diving and teaching other people.”
But with there being only five Olympic standard diving centres in the country, Daley said he reckoned Reading was some way off getting its first Olympic diver.
Student Olivia Paige said she had picked up a few new tricks from the young sportsman.
The 12-year-old said: “Tom was a really good teacher and was really clear about what he wanted us to do and we’ve also learnt about how to have a balanced diet.”
Another pupil, Charlotte Gibbon, 14, who admitted being a bit starstruck, said: “I learnt how to do a forward flip dive and a backward flip dive and I would never have been able to do that before.
“The best bit about the day was getting taught by Tom and meeting him, it was really good.”
Nicki Coombs, deputy head and director of swimming at Queen Anne’s, added: “Sport and encouraging our girls to lead fit, healthy lifestyles is an important part of what we do.
“We were thrilled to win the competition.
“All of our pupils have been excited for weeks and Tom didn’t disappoint. He was a real inspiration and the workshop was a huge success.” [
Source]
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