Tom Daley reveals how much Olympic gold medallist divers REALLY get paid - and the amount will surprise you

Daily Mail​

5 days ago

Tom Daley has revealed how much money Olympic gold medallist divers actually get paid.
The retired diver, 31, shot to fame in 2008 when he competed at the Beijing Olympic Games aged just 14 years old.
Daley then became somewhat of a poster boy for the London Olympics in 2012 and came away with a bronze medal, before securing the gold medal eight years later at the 2020 Tokyo games.
But despite his status as the only British diver to secure five medals and soaring fame, Daley revealed the pay check for an Olympic diver is very minimal.
Speaking on The Chris Moyles Show on Radio X on Thursday, Daley admitted that there are three tiers to diving salaries, with the top tier for those who win an Olympic medal - however this salary is as little as £27,000.
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Host Moyles asked: 'We were talking this morning, and you don't need to get too much into detail if you don't want to, when you're part of Team GB in the sport you were in do you all get paid the same?
'Is it like a token thing like here's thirty-five quid a week or whatever it is?'
'Well, kind of but it depends on how good you are,' Daley replied. 'There are tiers so if you qualify for the major of the year then you get a certain amount and if you come in the top eight you get more.
'Then if you win an Olympic medal you get to the top tier which I think is twenty-seven a year.'
A shocked Moyles said: 'Twenty-seven grand a year? That's all you get for being a gold medallist? That's rubbish!'
Daley replied: 'Yeah, that's what you get. But then I'm really fortunate to have had the sponsors and that kind of stuff.
'But that's kind of part of the reason why you see athletes doing brand partnerships for that reason.'
Newsreader Dominic Byrne shared his opinion on the salary as he said: 'It's not a lot of money is it for being the best in the world at your sport.'
'It's not a lot of money at all,' Moyles added. 'Because you became famous fairly quickly, as in you were obviously diving since you were three years old or something crazy, but you've got all that fame, and you are earning twenty-seven grand a year.
'Which ain't shabby but you must have been the poorest famous person in Britain for a while.'
Daley went on to reveal that he didn't receive access to his diving money until he was 16 years old.
'I wasn't allowed it until I was sixteen either!' he said.
'But you know it's one of those things and doing it from a young age and you know I didn't ever do it for that and for me diving was always such a big part of my life and the last time I ever did a dive into a swimming pool was in the Olympics last year so it is a very big shift and change to now be retired.'
It comes days after Daley revealed he was once asked by a stranger if he needed help changing his son's nappy as he opened up about the assumed incompetence that male same-sex parents face.
Daley shares sons Phoenix, two, and Robbie Ray, six, with his screenwriter husband Dustin Lance Black, 50.
They met in 2013 and wed two years later before welcoming their little ones who were sweetly seen supporting Tom poolside at the Paris 2024 Olympics last year.
But in a new interview he has touched on how two dads often feel like they have to 'overachieve'.
He told The Times: 'When you're same-sex parents, you feel as though you have to, again, overachieve. Someone asked if I wanted them to change Robbie's nappy for me.
'You don't want people to judge you. Because it matters to us so much, and we really care that we're doing the best job that we can.'
In the interview he also spoke about first meeting Dustin, revealing that they named their future children on their first date and said 'I love you' on their second.
Before Dustin he had mostly dated women but never felt like he could 'fall in love' with them.
He said: 'I'd been with girls for a very long time and so I had felt as though, if I really wanted to, I could suppress [my sexuality].
'But after meeting Lance I was, like, oh maybe this 'conflicted' thing isn't just sexual. It was actually what my heart wanted as well.'
Listen to The Chris Moyles Show on Radio X weekdays from 06:30 – 10:00 and on Saturday from 08:00 - 11:00 across the UK and on Global Player.