As both reputedly collected six figure sums, they can afford a few magnums of Krug as their bubbly of choice.

Joining them in a celebratory toast is that other gymnastics high-flyer Louis Smith, who waltzed off with the top prize also worth a good few quid in the BBC's Strictly Come Dancing last December.

All nice little earners. And good luck to them. Why shouldn't they coin it. But there is another side to that coin, and this one certainly isn't gold-plated.

While Tom Daley ended his mentoring role in the ITV diving reality series Splash! last month, tucking a six-figure cheque into his Speedos, his erstwhile synchro sidekick Pete Waterfield was finding reality somewhat different.

He is struggling to keep his head above water, having lost his UK Sport funding, a blow compounded, as we reported here last week, by his local council in Southampton also now denying a meagre funding grant to the diving centre where he trains.

Waterfield, 32, veteran of four Olympics and a silver medallist in 2004 reckons he can no longer afford to stay in the sport. "I have to pay a mortgage, two kids to feed as well as a car to run," he tells insidethegames. "Without the funding I can't do any of that.

"I've never saved anything. By the time I got the funding money each month ten days later it was gone."

Pete Waterfield is struggling to keep his head above water because of a lack of opportunities post London 2012


He is by no means alone in being on the breadline. The Olympic legacy for most medallists is a swelling bank balance but for so many others in the 2012 chorus-line the only legacy is a daily visit to the job centre.

No lucrative pots of gold for them. For every Ennis, Farah and Adams there are scores who, like Waterfield are now in dire straits financially. For them it is the dole or Job Seekers' allowance.

Celebrity doesn't come cheap as the 2012 royalty cash in on fame, hugging a shoal of contracts for huge commercial deals.

One agent for an Olympic gold medallist - and they all have them now - even demands a minimum £1,500 ($2,200/€1,700) for any media interview. Nice work if you can get it, but for the majority of the foot soldiers, any sort of work would be nice.

Which is why around 150 Olympians and Paralympians thronged Reading's Madejski stadium recently attempting to find out if there is a working life after sport at an inaugural Athlete Career Fair, a sort of post-Olympic job centre for the army of foot soldiers of London 2012 as well as those retiring from sport.

The fair – a joint initiative by the British Olympic Association (BOA), the British Paralympic Association (BPA), UK Sport, the English Institute of Sport (EIS) and the Dame Kelly Holmes Legacy Trust – is a continuation of the work of the EIS Performance Lifestyle programme that has run since 2004 to help athletes find employment after retiring from sport.

Over the last four-year cycle, nearly 100 athletes have been offered part-time placements or internships with companies such as O2, Cadbury and InterContinental Hotels Group.

Athens 2004 bronze medallist Georgina Harland now works to help other athletes find jobs


Bringing together athletes and prospective employers was Georgina Harland, a modern pentathlon bronze medallist, who is now a sports engagement manager for the BOA. She says, "It resonates with what I experienced as an athlete when I went through the same transition stage. For the majority of athletes, when the funding stops and you step into the big wide world, it is a daunting prospect. So far, the feedback has been very positive, lots of interviews have been arranged – but no job offers as yet. These things take time."

GB volleyball player Andy Pink has been lucky, recently starting a new job with PR Company, Brazil, after searching since October: "It's tough to get your foot in the door in the current economic climate," he says. "I stopped keeping count after 20 interviews. It's good to have an Olympics in your CV but when you turn up, all they want to talk about is the Games."

American-born Pink, who has been playing volleyball here and abroad since he was 16 has now retired at 30 with the future of the sport uncertain because of the recent funding cuts. "I'd had enough of living out of a suitcase and getting paid next to nothing. I could have made more money driving a minicab around London. Most of us went into debt every time we played for the national team."

His female GB colleague Rachel Laybourne, 30, knows all about debt. She still has to pay off around £10,000 ($15,000/€12,000). Since London, she can no longer afford to play her sport at elite level even though she has finally landed a job in an Essex school teaching an NVQ course which she got through "a friend of a friend of a friend".

"But I haven't paid off a penny yet. When I got my first pay packet and paid for my accommodation and food, I didn't have anything left. Every single member of our team was in debt, constantly borrowing money. I was absolutely staggered by the number of athletes at the careers fair. I didn't realise so many were out of work and I was very thankful that I had a job.

"I know of one guy in the men's team - Kieran O'Malley - who's written dozens of letters and has been in and out of employment centres every day since the Games and he's not got any further than a second interview."

Fran Leighton, 30, the captain of the British women's water polo team in London, has only a limited employment record as a part-time swimming teacher to support her sporting. She is hoping her experience in captaining a leading of 20 water polo players will land her a managerial position when she bows out of her sport after this summer's World Championships.

"It's frightening but exciting at the same time," she said. "After the Olympics, I did feel, 'Oh my goodness'. Everything I've done since London won the bid seven years ago has been about Olympics, Olympics, Olympics. Suddenly you're feeling, 'Gosh, what do I do now?'

Ben Hawes now works for IHG thanks to the EIS scheme


The EIS scheme helped Ben Hawes, 32, former GB Olympic hockey captain, get a job in marketing with IHG, the hotel group but he says: "A massive number of those who competed in 2012 are struggling to find work. I speak to guys in the hockey team regularly who are up against it. It's probably only one per cent of Olympians who can make a living on the back of the Games; even some guys with medals can find it difficult when you've been put on a pedestal and suddenly you are back in the real world. There has to be a big swallowing of pride to start at the bottom of a career ladder."

Three other GB hockey players, Anne Panter, Simon Mantell and Emily Maguire have spent four weeks with Goldman Sachs on an internship organised by add-victor, a specialist employment agency set up by former England and Harlequins rugby player Simon White-Cooper, which currently has 250 job-seeking athletes from dozens of sports on its books.

Whether Waterfield will be joining them remains to be seen. "I still believe I can bring home international honours but the only way I can carry on diving after 20 years is in the sport is if I find funding from a different source," he says." Otherwise I'll be looking for another job."

For him pride comes before a dive. "I'll never go on the dole, no way," he promises. "I'm a fighter and I'll find a way to survive."

For him and others now struggling at the grass roots, that grass certainly isn't greener after 2012. Surely, they, too, are worth a commercial break.

Alan Hubbard is an award-winning sports columnist for The Independent on Sunday, and a former sports editor of The Observer. He has covered a total of 16 Summer and Winter Games, 10 Commonwealth Games, several football World Cups and world title fights from Atlanta to Zaire.