""Staying in bed, lying in, going to town," says Tom Daley, as he sits in the balcony, surveying Plymouth's Central Park Pool, packed as it is with frolicking holiday-makers. For Daley, however, his Easter break consists of the following:
"Morning and afternoon in here. Sixty per cent dry land work, in an old squash court round the back. Lots of trampolining, fitness, weights, strength and conditioning.
"Then into the pool, lots of stuff off the lower boards, practising the individual parts of a dive. Plus maybe 12 full dives off the top board per session."
And this Saturday there is the small matter of appearing as Britain's leading representative in the World Series diving competition, to be held in Sheffield.
"Still," he adds, unleashing the megawatt smile that you suspect will, over the next few years, earn him a quid or two, "the thing is when they're all back at school, I'm off to Mexico and America for three weeks. That's the compensation. That's what I tell myself when I'm working."
As is clear from his hectic holiday routine, Tom Daley is far from an ordinary young boy of 14. Last Christmas, for instance, he switched on the decorative lights hereabouts and more than a thousand girls turned up and screamed continuously ("insane," is his father Bob's memory of the occasion; "quite funny" Tom's own take on it).
Which is something that has not happened to any 14-year-old since Donny Osmond was doing the illuminatory honours in the early Seventies.
Indeed at an age when most 14-year-olds are not much more than a maelstrom of competing hormones, Daley is already the best diver in the country, and, after finishing third in a recent international tournament, is now rapidly climbing up the world rankings.
Many – including the lad himself – reckon he has a chance of being at the very top before he is 18. Which, by a happy coincidence, would be in time for London 2012." [
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