Waterfield helped put the sport of diving on the map in Britain after he and former partner Leon Taylor claimed Olympic silver in Athens just two years after Waterfield won individual gold in 10m platform event at the Manchester 2002 Commonwealth Games.

But the 30-year-old admits that the emergence of Daley, who he will partner with in the Olympic 10m synchronised event, has made the profile of the sport skyrocket with the popular 17-year-old from Plymouth having already won gold the World Championships, European Championships and Commonwealth Games.

Daley will be going for double gold at London 2012 in the 10m individual and synchronised events and Waterfield believes that the pair can use the home Olympics to take the sport to the next level.

"Tom and I have been working hard and barring injury, we will definitely be ready when it comes to the London 2012 Olympics," Waterfield told insidethegames.

"A medal is definitely realistic for us because we have consistently been performing well against the best guys out there.

"A gold medal would be brilliant and it would not only be a major boost for the two of us, but also for the sport in general.

"It would help build on what we have done in the lead up to the Olympics.

"Tom has obviously got a very high-profile and rightfully so because he has achieved an awful lot at a very young age and he has really raised the profile of our sport.

"When we won our Olympic medal in Athens, it raised the profile of diving in Britain and then out of that came Tom Daley.

"He has managed to move it on even more so hopefully if we can do well at London 2012, we can have a few more Tom Daley's in the future.

"But whether he gets the attention or I get the attention is not important.

"I'm not in it for all that; I just do it because I love doing it.

"I'm lucky to have had a great career and to have travelled the world so the fame thing doesn't bother me."


Waterfield also thinks that the pair can benefit from each other as a combination of old and young.

"He can certainly learn from my experiences and I think that can definitely help us at London 2012," Waterfield said.

"But saying that, I can still learn from him because he is a great talent.

"Although he is younger than me and he hasn't won an Olympic medal yet, it doesn't mean that I can't learn anything from him.

"Our sport is one of those sports where if something isn't working, you get advice from any of the top divers and that will help you.

"So it works both ways where we can learn off each other.

"The key is coping with the pressure and we have both shown that we can do that because we have both won big titles.

"I remember that when I competed in Manchester at the 2002 Commonwealth Games and won gold, I did so because the home crowd spurred me on so much.

"People can take a home Games as pressure but for me, it is the opposite and it really gets me going.

"So I can't wait for London and at an Olympics, anything can happen."


Waterfield was speaking here at an event at Chingford Foundation School to promote the 2012 Balfour Beatty London Youth Games, which he competed in as a youngster.

Now part of the Government's nationwide School Games programme and supported by Sport England National Lottery funding, the London Youth Games will feature more schools events within its calendar to build on the record-breaking 71,000 youngsters who took part in last year's Games.

"The London Youth Games were definitely a big benefit to me growing up," said Waterfield.

"I used to think of them as a mini-Olympics and they definitely proved a very useful learning curb for what ended up happening in my career.

More information on the 2012 Balfour Beatty London Youth Games is available here.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


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