Diving Into Love, I Go - A Tom Daley Love Story

Chapter Fourteen

Erin POV

For Tom, the Olympics was full of drama. On the day of his first event, which was the synchronised diving finals, was going so well until the half way mark when they dropped into fourth place.

Taylor and the others were pretty much stuck to the TV, arguing over the remote and who gets to watch which events. But for Tom's events we were all glued to the TV with no fuss made.

Before the commentators explained how the scoring system worked none of us really understand it. Taylor would 'ohh' and 'ahh' at the skills of the divers when appropriate but just like the British Gas Championships Taylor would shout out her encouragement at the TV.

The first half of Tom and his partner Pete's dives were perfect and had little or even no flaws in them. At this point Tom and Pete looked very confident and were enjoying themselves.However, by the time the fourth dive came along, they plummeted to the bottom of the pack. The whole crowd, including us groaned when they hit the water with splash.

Tom and Pete did not managed to recover from their mistake and by the end of it they just missed out on a medal.

But, that's not where the drama ended.

"The nerve of that boy!" Taylor exclaimed later on as she checked her twitter. There had been a lot of drama involving Tom and an Internet troll. His twitter is chaotic with his fans and other people supporting him protesting about the idiot.

Since the drama in the Aquatic Centre I tried to call him in my attempt to comfort him. To reassure him that we're still very proud of him. However, when I tried calling, his phone was switched off and I gathered that he wanted sometime to himself to think about what happened.

"I'm seriously gonna track the little shit down and wring his neck!" Taylor exclaimed at her pink laptop. She soon had her lawyer head on and started to go on about it was clearly harrasment and the police should do something about it. Sure it was done over the internet  and the 'little shit' was protected by the anomymity on the internet but the Law on social media is ever changing to keep up with the changes.

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Ater a few days, Tom came home to Plymouth after all the drama but he spent most of his time training. I went over to meet him after a training session and we went to the cinema. He didn't really want to talk about the troll attack over twitter and I did not press on. He just smiled in a thankful matter and kissed me on the cheeks.

Tom went back to London a few days later in a more relaxed manner rather than the mellow mood that he was in when he came back to Plymouth.

It was the day after the twitter drama that I managed to contact him and he apologised sincerely about not turning his phone on and hoped that he did not make me worry. I told him that it was fine, I understand that he needs his time to think things through.

Just like the first day of Tom's event, Taylor, the boys and I were once again glued to the TV to watch the individual's event finals. Tom just managed to scrape through the qualifications the night before and the semi-finals this morning.

And just like the first day it was full of drama, maybe even more, for Tom demanded a re-dive when he lost his concentration because of flash photography.

When Tom first stepped unto the platform, just like the way they do when an athlete from Team GB appear the whole crowd erupted in a loud applause. Tom's face was pinched in concentration and took a deep breath before taking a leap. From the moment he took off it was evident that he was not going to perform the dive well, he lost his shape half way through the air but managed to regain his composure before going through into the water with a huge splashed behind him.

The whole crowd groaned and once Tom resurfaced, he looked furious. I never seen him so furious, as he tried to consult his coach about the flashes that distracted him and demanded a re-dive.

The commentators soon explained what happened and the rules of demanding a re-dive. He himself, one of the commentators said, that he demanded a re-dive when he was distracted by the crowd. The camaras kept replaying the moment Tom took off and it was evident that he had a point and a very valid one too.

"Even if he doesn't get a re-dive, he might still be able to get a medal" Adam contributed

"It was a little bit better than his first dive at the prelims" Matt replied in a bored tone.

At the end Tom was granted his re-dive and it was much better than the first one, despite the pressure that was now on his shoulders to make sure that he kept diving the way he did in the re-dive and not like the first dive.

"Yes! He's got a medal!" Taylor jumped up and down as Tom nailed his last dive. Tom emerged from the water, finally smiling which was the first after the re-dive, and glad that he might be in with the chance of a medal. His coach hugged him and Tom went to join the rest of his team mates who all came to support him. He sat on the floor and his team mates patted him and congratulated him for being on top of the leader board. He's currently the Gold medallist.

He had nothing else to do but watch on as the American took the gold which pushed Tom in Silver but the look on Tom's face told everyone that he was happy with Silver. Soon the Chinese took to the platform and leaped into the air but it was not good enough for Gold.

When the Chinese took the silver and it sunk in for the audience that Tom got the Bronze, the Aquatic Centre erupted and Tom's team mates carried him and jumped into the pool in a style that only a teenager like them could ever celebrate. Even his coach, Andy, jumped into the pool in a cannonball position.

Taylor kept jumping up and down like a maniac but even I couldn't keep my excitement in. I was so proud of him, he told me himself that does not expect a medal because of his shaky start in the prelims and the fact that he just managed to scrape through the semis and into the finals.

The pure delight and the relief on his face when he stood on the podium to receive his bronze medal shome through and his smiles literally brighten up the whole crowd. 

I'm so proud of him.

"Honestly, this medal means so much to me" He told the interviewers when he got his medal and they took him aside for an interview

"It's been unbelievable. It's been the toughest year of my life, losing my Dad and it was a shame that he couldn't be here to see this day because I know he would have been so proud of me for what I've done. To go into the prelims yesterday and have shaky start and just scraping through to the semi-finals. Then coming in the next day and not losing my confidence, I'm literally just so happy but I really wish Dad was here to see that." He continued and nodded his head in statisfaction ad he wrapped the Union Jack around his shoulders.

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