Cute as a button, Tom Daley, enjoying a light, playful moment in Beijing.
Britain's Olympic teenage diving prodigy has the voice and visage of a choirboy, yet the cutting edge and focus of a seasoned, elite athlete. Thomas Daley turned 14 on Wednesday, and the Beijing Games cannot come quickly enough.
Gorgeous Blake Aldridge also not to be blamed for saying the things he said earlier. Blame it on the spotlight.
Tom (and his partner, Blake Aldridge) may have to wait till the next Olympics in London four years from now to win their gold. They were last night said to have mended their relationship following the bitter recriminations over their last place in the final of Monday’s synchronised platform diving.
Beijing was not meant for someone as cute as you...
Tom taking a plunge in Beijing last Monday night and finished last. To be honest England shouldn't have put Tom Daley in this Olympics because really it's a test run for London 2012. Queers can only imagine the pressure that got to Tom in the last few months, but what a remarkable brave young man he is...taking it all in and being an Olympian - and sharing the spotlight and the media attention with Michael Pelphs -really says something about this precious and pretty English Rose. Only 14 and already looking very much like a gold medalist, a return Olympian, and no less.
England's Rose, the face of a future gold medal.
Blake Aldridge has spent his recent life living in the shadow of a small 14-year-old boy who became a national hero.
Yesterday, he decided to get his own back and turned a British Olympic fairy tale into something more akin to an act of betrayal.
Aldridge may well have good reasons for resenting the publicity and adoration that has been lavished upon his synchronised diving partner Tom Daley.
But the venom with which he rounded on Britain's second youngest Olympian after the pair finished last in the 10m synchronised final was a cruel way to ruin a feel-good story and destroy the fragile confidence of a kid.
It wasn't supposed to matter where Daley, nicknamed Tom Thumb and the BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year, and Aldridge finished yesterday. They never had a chance of gold. A medal of any hue was wildly optimistic.
The achievement was qualifying for Beijing in the first place. The excitement was in wondering just how good Daley might be in four years when London 2012 rolls around. But when Daley and Aldridge, 26, were led down the narrow passageway that leads from the pool to the area where the media wait to talk to competitors at The Cube, Aldridge behaved like a bully in Daley's school playground.
As the youngster stood alongside him, talking about how much he had learned from his experience, Aldridge spewed out a stream of bile about the young partner who is the only reason he was here in the first place.
He heaped all the blame for the pair's performance on to Daley's slender shoulders and said the boy had let him down.
Most astonishingly of all, he was angry Daley had complained about his lack of professionalism when Aldridge signalled to his mother, who was in the crowd, during the competition and asked her to phone him.
"I know Tom was affected by nerves today and we didn't perform as well as we could," said Aldridge. "I didn't feel the amount of nerves as him. I've been around the block a few times and I was pretty well prepared.
"Obviously, he had a lot of pressure on him to perform well because of all the media coverage and unfortunately it didn't come together on the day.
"All the publicity he's had, that's the sole reason why it went the way it did today. I'm not disappointed with my performance at all, I landed on my head in every single dive which was my aim.
Britain's Olympic teenage diving prodigy has the voice and visage of a choirboy, yet the cutting edge and focus of a seasoned, elite athlete. Thomas Daley turned 14 on Wednesday, and the Beijing Games cannot come quickly enough.
Gorgeous Blake Aldridge also not to be blamed for saying the things he said earlier. Blame it on the spotlight.Tom (and his partner, Blake Aldridge) may have to wait till the next Olympics in London four years from now to win their gold. They were last night said to have mended their relationship following the bitter recriminations over their last place in the final of Monday’s synchronised platform diving.
Beijing was not meant for someone as cute as you...Tom taking a plunge in Beijing last Monday night and finished last. To be honest England shouldn't have put Tom Daley in this Olympics because really it's a test run for London 2012. Queers can only imagine the pressure that got to Tom in the last few months, but what a remarkable brave young man he is...taking it all in and being an Olympian - and sharing the spotlight and the media attention with Michael Pelphs -really says something about this precious and pretty English Rose. Only 14 and already looking very much like a gold medalist, a return Olympian, and no less.
England's Rose, the face of a future gold medal.Blake Aldridge has spent his recent life living in the shadow of a small 14-year-old boy who became a national hero.
Yesterday, he decided to get his own back and turned a British Olympic fairy tale into something more akin to an act of betrayal.
Aldridge may well have good reasons for resenting the publicity and adoration that has been lavished upon his synchronised diving partner Tom Daley.
But the venom with which he rounded on Britain's second youngest Olympian after the pair finished last in the 10m synchronised final was a cruel way to ruin a feel-good story and destroy the fragile confidence of a kid.
It wasn't supposed to matter where Daley, nicknamed Tom Thumb and the BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year, and Aldridge finished yesterday. They never had a chance of gold. A medal of any hue was wildly optimistic.
The achievement was qualifying for Beijing in the first place. The excitement was in wondering just how good Daley might be in four years when London 2012 rolls around. But when Daley and Aldridge, 26, were led down the narrow passageway that leads from the pool to the area where the media wait to talk to competitors at The Cube, Aldridge behaved like a bully in Daley's school playground.
As the youngster stood alongside him, talking about how much he had learned from his experience, Aldridge spewed out a stream of bile about the young partner who is the only reason he was here in the first place.
He heaped all the blame for the pair's performance on to Daley's slender shoulders and said the boy had let him down.
Most astonishingly of all, he was angry Daley had complained about his lack of professionalism when Aldridge signalled to his mother, who was in the crowd, during the competition and asked her to phone him.
"I know Tom was affected by nerves today and we didn't perform as well as we could," said Aldridge. "I didn't feel the amount of nerves as him. I've been around the block a few times and I was pretty well prepared.
"Obviously, he had a lot of pressure on him to perform well because of all the media coverage and unfortunately it didn't come together on the day.
"All the publicity he's had, that's the sole reason why it went the way it did today. I'm not disappointed with my performance at all, I landed on my head in every single dive which was my aim.
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