- Tom Daley said he owes his gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics to his knitting hobby.
- The British diver told The Telegraph the practice taught him about making mistakes and moving forward.
Tom Daley said he believes knitting helped him nab his first gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics.
The British diver told The Telegraph's Boudicca Fox-Leonard in an interview published Monday that he picked up the hobby after the UK's first COVID-19 lockdown in March 2020. By the time the international sporting event came around in July 2021, Daley was hooked.
"The fact you only get one opportunity every four years is super intense, which is why knitting really helped. It took the stress out of it," he said, later adding, "I honestly think I owe the Olympic gold to knitting."
The outlet reports that Daley's knitting-specific Instagram account, @madewithlovebytomdaley, jumped from 60,000 followers to 1.2 million after photos of the athlete knitting between events went viral. Made with Love launched as a website in November 2021, where Daley sells knitting kits, patterns, and merchandise.
Daley also posts tutorials on YouTube, the same social media platform where he learned the basics of knitting. Although he told The Telegraph that he was "terrible" when he first picked it up, he stuck with it and learned some important lessons.
"Perfection wins you gold medals, and I think what knitting has taught me is that mistakes can teach you so many lessons," he said. "With diving I was always so worried about making mistakes that I didn't try to push forward — because I was worried that if I made a mistake it would set me back. Knitting has allowed me to be a little bit more creative."
Knitting and diving certainly seem to intertwine for Daley. After he and fellow diver Matty Lee won the gold medal in the men's synchronized 10-meter platform event last July, he shared that he kept the medal in a hand-knit pouch to protect it from scratches on Instagram.
He later showed off the "Team Great Britain" sweater he was seen stitching in the stands at the Olympics, which featured the Olympic rings, the Union Jack flag, and the word Tokyo embroidered in Japanese characters on the front.