Olympic diver and British sporting icon Tom Daley has candidly opened up about his ongoing battle with body image, revealing in a new interview that despite years in the public eye — and on the podium — he often “hates the way [he] looks.”
Daley, who recently retired after claiming a silver medal at Paris 2024, is well known for his confident appearances in competition and public events. But behind the scenes, the father of two says he’s grappled with body image issues throughout his career, and particularly now that his intense training regime has ended.
Speaking to The Times in promotion of his upcoming documentary 1.6 Seconds (available on discovery+ from 1 June), Daley reflected on the mental toll of maintaining an elite athlete’s physique.
“I hate the way I look,” he admitted. “I’ve always had such horrible body issues going through my diving career. Now I’m not an athlete that trains six hours a day, I especially hate it.”
Even during a photoshoot for the article, he said he found the experience difficult. “I know if I’m rational about it, I should be completely happy,” Daley said. “But seeing videos of what I looked like in the Olympics, I’m, like, why can’t I look like that again?”
Daley also disclosed that his disordered eating and body dysmorphia date back over a decade. “I remember looking in the mirror in, say, 2016, and hating the way that I looked,” he shared. “And then you flash forward ten years and you’re, like, I wish I looked like that. Why didn’t I just appreciate it?”
The former Olympic gold medallist linked his struggles in part to the pressures of social media and expectations within gay culture. “Growing up in the initial ages of social media and gay culture, being held to such a high standard, it’s really difficult,” he said. “Now I need to just have a healthy relationship with my body.”
Outside of sport, Daley has been busy building a multi-faceted media career. He’s set to host Game of Wool—a creative knitting competition with a Bake Off-style twist—and will appear in the celebrity edition of The Traitors, alongside icons like Stephen Fry and Clare Balding.
Daley, who came out publicly in 2013 and married filmmaker Dustin Lance Black in 2017, remains an important voice in the LGBTQ+ community, now turning that spotlight on the less visible pressures even the most successful athletes face.
