Olympic Diver Tom Daley Knits To Reduce Anxiety During Tokyo Games

British Olympic diver Tom Daley revealed that his secret to staying calm throughout the competition is knitting.

Photos of the athlete knitting what seemed to be a pink, purple and blue pouch were posted on social media on Sunday, while he sat in the stands watching the women’s final springboard diving competition. On Monday morning, it appeared Daley was working on a new project with white yarn.

Daley revealed on Instagram that knitting is his way of “finding calm, mindfulness and [it] relieves stress.” The athlete has a separate knitting Instagram account, called “Made with love by Tom Daley,” where he shares his creations and sells them to raise money for charity.

“When I got to Tokyo, I wanted to make something that would remind me of these games,” he captioned one of his Instagram posts, where he is wearing a white cardigan he created with the Great Britain and Olympics logo. “Something that I could say I had made in Tokyo, during the Olympics! I did a @teamgb logo on the back, with a flag and GBR on the shoulders and Tokyo embroidered onto the front!”

“One thing that has kept me sane throughout this whole process is my love for knitting and crochet and all things stitching,” he explained in a video this week, showing the knitted pouch he created to hold his new gold medal.

“Learning to knit and crochet has helped me so much through these Olympics and we won GOLD yesterday,” he captioned his video. “I made a little medal case too! YAY!”