Tom Daley Balances Diving With TV Presenting Ambition

Tom Daley, the Olympic bronze medal-winning British diver, believes that jugging multiple interests and responsibilities brings out the in best him – and his diving.

Just this past weekend, Daley, who's been studying for his A-Levels and who made a recent appearance on ITV’s Splash!, won the gold medal at the Edinburgh World Series. "When I'm busy that's when I perform at my best," Daley explained to BBC Sport. "I feel when I have time off and I am just diving I struggle, so it's good to have other things on my mind."

In the recent past, Daley was criticized for his outside commitments. One of his harshest critics has been British Diving performance director Alexei Evangulov. However, Daley's performance at the Edinburgh World Series worked to soften the Russian swim coach to the 18-year-old athlete. "I'm very happy with his results because I perhaps expected a little bit less," Evangulov told BBC Radio 5 live.

"I estimated around 515 [points] for the beginning of the season, but he made 542.15 and claimed a [gold] medal against his great rivals [Victor] Minibaev and [Ivan] Garcia, so Tom did great," he added."

Daley and his mother (who wrote an open letter bashing British Swimming's chief executive David Sparkes for his unkind words against her son last year) have continually defended his busy schedule. "Diving is my main priority, it always has been and always will be until I retire because I want to make sure I give myself the best opportunity to do well," Daley told BBC Radio 2.

"But I want to be a TV presenter when I finish, so it's the same as doing school work if you want to set yourself up for a job – you need to study hard – and if you want to be a TV presenter you need to do a bit of TV work."

Daley served as a presenter at The BRIT Awards 2013 earlier this year.

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