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Tom Daley will be “really sad” when he eventually quits diving.
While the 28-year-old sports star currently has his sights set on the 2024 Olympics in Paris, he knows retirement is inevitable and is already looking ahead to his future.
He said: “I love diving and the moment I choose to stop is going to be really sad. It's only two years until the Olympics in Paris. It is a short cycle. It has been weird watching the World Championship scores and comparing them to what I've done in the past. The score I got for bronze in Tokyo was 40 points more than the gold medal score.”
However, Tom's current break from competing has allowed him to spend more time with his husband Dustin Lance Black, 48, and their four-year-old son Robbie, along with focusing on his other passions.
He told Big Issue magazine: “But it has been nice to set different goals this year. I spend three nights in Pakistan, three nights in Jamaica but otherwise, I've just been with Robbie and Lance and it's been so special.
“Between my family, knitting and fighting for LGBT rights this year has been really nice. My priorities and perspectives have been massively shifted in terms of what matters most. I feel like I'm going to look back at this as one of the most important years of my life and the one where I really started to be active in the movement.”
Meanwhile, the diver acknowledged that no person's coming out story is the same as anyone else's.
He said: “There's no one size fits all. My big advice is making sure you come out in your own time and that it has to be safe. And just being able to be yourself with one person is better than never being able to be yourself with anyone.
“I came out back in December 2013. Initially I was just doing it because I didn't want to feel like I had to hide any more. Since then, I mean, I've been married for five years, I've got a son that starts school in September, it's all gone very quickly.”
