After winning gold, Tom Daley said he feels incredibly proud of being gay.
Daley and his diving partner, Matty Lee, brought home a gold medal for Team Great Britain Monday. The victory was especially meaningful for Daley in his second Olympics as he openly discussed being gay.
After winning gold, Daley said via the Olympic News Service, “I feel incredibly proud to say that I’m a gay man and also an Olympic champion. I feel very empowered by that.”
The Tokyo Games are Daley’s fourth Olympics and his first partnered with Matty Lee in the synchronized event, according to USA Today.
Daley, who is also a YouTube vlogger, became a sensation after he competed in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, at the age of 14.
He had to leave his husband, Dustin Lance Black, and 3-year-old-son, Robert, back home in the UK due to the COVID-19 restrictions on international visitors and fans.
Daley said the gold medal was particularly important to him, as he wanted his son to see him compete, even if he could only watch on television, per USA Today.
“It’s unbelievable, especially after Rio 2016, when I was extremely disappointed because I thought that’d be my best chance of a medal,” Daley said.
“But my husband said my story doesn’t end there,” he added. “He said our son was going to watch me become an Olympic champion, and there’s a whole lot of your chosen family out here to support you.”
However, Daley’s journey in the Tokyo Games is not finished yet. He is set to compete again on August 6 in the individual 10-meter platform dive, where he will face Cao Yuan, a 2012 Olympic gold medalist. The story appeared on USA Today.
