In a forthcoming, candid portrait of his life, Olympic champion diver Tom Daley has been revealing the harsh treatment he received from sports executives during his campaign to capture the gold in an upcoming movie about 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.
He goes further and explains what transpired in his new movie, though. In Tom Daley’s 1.6 seconds, he states: “At the end of 2011, I was told by our performance director at British diving that I needed to lose weight, that I needed to look slimmer, leaner, and more like I did in 2008; it was the first time I felt valued more than how I looked, but rather how I looked. Let’s say I took some very drastic measures to prevent the food from sticking in my stomach.
In the weeks leading up to the Olympic Games, I had a diary in which I would write my weight and date, but a rational person would know that I wasn’t fat. I felt like I was being kind of left on my own devices and kind of left with that struggle by myself because even when I was meeting with my sports psychologist, I was struggling to bring that out because every time I said it out loud, I knew it would sound silly, but in my head, it was the biggest thing I would always think about, every time I made a decision about what to eat, if I was going to eat it and then become so enamored that I had to do something about it.
Tom goes on to say that being alone throughout the early years of his career, he struggled to be open about how he felt to others.
He continues, “I still feel like ashamed talking about it now because, like, once you’re on the other side of it, it seems so simple to stop and ask for help, but when you’re in it, you feel like you can’t be helped,” he continues.
“Guys didn’t have eating disorders. Guys’ mental health was unaffected by anything. Guyanese were created as these macho creatures that would get into trouble whatever and just keep going. I didn’t know who I could talk to because I wasn’t. I felt very alone in every situation I was dealing with, which is the main theme here.
Sophie Lee, Tom’s close friend, also makes reference to the stresses that he was going through. She claimed that the eating disorder was more significant than the amount of stress and anxiety he was experiencing when he arrived in London in 2012.
Tom, the most decorated diver in the world, won five Olympic medals at the end of his career. When he first competed in Beijing at the age of 14, he returned five times to Paris last year, where he won a silver medal, and his two sons Robbie and Phoenix saw him in the Olympic pool.
He won a bronze medal at London 2012 shortly after receiving heavy jibes from British diving executives.
He and his wife Dustin Lance Black, their sons Robbie and Phoenix, spend more time at home now that he has retired from diving.
Tom says in the movie, “My entire life has been about diving.” Those 1.6 seconds have been my life’s goal since birth. I would not change a thing after four years of training for a task that would pass in less than ten seconds.
“I’ve had the best time, met the most amazing people, and traveled to incredible places, and it’s been the best 23 years that I can imagine.” Although there have been times when I felt like I couldn’t continue, it has also been incredibly difficult and challenging. I kept going.
“I think the one thing that I’m looking forward to is having the opportunity to share this with Robbie and Phoenix and preserve that memory for the rest of my life,” he said. I feel very fortunate to have people who can now make me feel completely at ease with anything and everything.
“But I think that also comes from letting my guard down, because my guard was up for the longest.”
*On June 1st, Tom Daley 1.6 Seconds will be available on Really and TNT Sports.
Source: Mirror
Leave a Reply