Tom Daley: ‘I’ve found a second passion in life’

Instead of impressing the nation with gold medal-winning performances off the diving board, Tom Daley is now hoping to inspire people in a radically different way: through his love of knitting and crochet.

Daley, who retired from diving last year after a haul of Olympic, World, European, Commonwealth and British medals, has helped create a range of crochet and embroidery kits in the hope that people who’ve never tried the crafts before will pick up crochet hooks and sewing needles to create their own yarn and thread masterpieces.

He’s teamed up with Hobbycraft to create the Made With Love by Tom Daley  kits, hoping to build on the ‘Daley effect’ that saw a rise in interest in crafting after Daley was spotted knitting in the stands at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics – the Games at which he won gold in the men’s synchronised 10-metre platform event.

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He says:  “All the time I spent when I was diving is now being spent on Made with Love, which I just love being able to do. I feel very lucky to have found a second passion in life.”

Daley, who now lives in Los Angeles with his American Oscar-winning filmmaker husband Dustin Lance Black and their two sons, Robbie, aged seven, and Phoenix, two, admits that knitting and crocheting replacing his diving still seems a little bizarre.

“When I was diving, if anybody had said I’d probably be more known for knitting than diving at this point, I’d say it was kind of crazy,” he says. “The whole thing still seems slightly absurd.”

Although knitting is a stereotypically older lady’s pastime, Daley wasn’t taught by his gran to knit – although he says both his grandmas do knit and have started doing it more since he took up the craft.

“Since I started, they’ve picked the needles back up again,” he says with a laugh.

He actually learned how to knit and crochet from YouTube tutorials, and picking up tips from people who saw him knitting or crocheting.

“I was a late bloomer,” he says, “I started knitting just before lockdown, so I’ve only been doing it for five years. It came into my life at a time when I was trying to find something to do – I had a lot of spare time with waiting for the Olympics, and lockdown, and it gave me my little creative outlet. I was able to take my mind off everything and just focus on the stitches in front of me.

“So it was something I picked up quite late in life, but became obsessed pretty quickly.”

Now the 31-year-old, who hasn’t dived at all since the 2024 Paris Olympics, where he won a silver medal, spends at least an hour a day knitting, and is hosting the new  Channel 4 show to find Britain’s best knitter, Game Of Wool. And, of course, he  recently appeared on the BBC’s hit reality TV show Celebrity Traitors as one of the faithfuls, getting ‘murdered’ by traitors Jonathan Ross, Cat Burns and Alan Carr during episode three.

Daley, who admits he was constantly knitting when he wasn’t filming scenes for Celebrity Traitors, says: “I got into knitting and crochet and all of the different kinds of crafts mainly because it was a great way for my mental health to be in the moment, be present and be mindful about lots of different things. I’ve always wanted to try and make it accessible to as many people as possible, so they’re able to slow down and sit and do something slowly with their hands.

“I think it’s an important skill, and it’s very rewarding. It’s also something people love, when you’re able to make something and gift it to somebody else.”

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He says he likes to make clothes best, and has just made his sons matching jumpers for their school photo. And while he acknowledges that knitting and crochet are seen as an older person’s hobby, his aim is to attract the younger generation to it as well.

“I want to try and reach a younger audience, so I’m trying to make things with more fun colours, and create patterns that are slightly different to what might be out there already,” he explains.

“Compared to the historical audience for knitting and crochet, I think there’s starting to be a younger skew now, and that’s something that’s really quite exciting.”

He says he’d love to help get knitting and crochet taught as crafts in schools, and points out: “It’s a great tool to be able to unwind and be mindful and as a form of meditation. And I think people are wanting to be able to do things and make things by hand a lot more, because it’s good to the environment, and it’s also very rewarding.”

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Daley hasn’t managed to get his husband to start knitting or crocheting, although he says: “Sometimes we do sit down together and because he has to catch up on his work, he reads while I knit, and it’s our way of being together, but being separate at the same time.”

But knitting and crochet aren’t Daley’s only wellbeing fixes – he still works out a lot, and enjoys walking as well.

“I retired last year,” he says, “but I still do exercise all the time, and that’s always formed part of my day-to-day life.

“I like taking workout classes, and I go hiking with my husband every morning. There’s all kinds of different things I do.

“I enjoy being able to go and have the freedom to do all of the different exercises that I used to never be able to do when I was training because of the fear of serious injury. But I find myself enjoying workout classes more than anything, because it pushes me in the same way as when I used to train with the GB team.”

However, much as Daley loved diving, there’s absolutely none of that these days.

“I’ve not actually set foot on a diving board since the Paris Olympics,” he says. “Diving is one of those hard sports to gain access to – it’s not like a swimming pool where you can go and do a couple of laps. It’s a very different scenario, because with diving you have to book things out in advance, and it’s not always as easy as just turning up.

“There’s always that part of me that misses diving – it’s something that’s been such a huge part of my life, and I feel very fortunate that I’ve had something to transition into afterwards.”

Made With Love by Tom Daley kits are available now from Hobbycraft, priced from £4.