#Olympic diving commentator professional

At the start of his career, diving was not a professional sport and there was no National Lottery funding Taylor was thus forced to balance other aspects of his life with training. Taylor can certainly empathise with Cambridge students who feel their workloads prevent them from taking up a sport like diving. You need a lot of mental toughness to even attempt a dive – never mind performing it at a competition.” After all, at the end of the day, a diver has to stand on a high board, on their tiptoes, and acknowledge that in a moment’s time, they’ve got to jump off, spin around and hit the water at speed. Taylor explains that there is another mental element to diving that is best nurtured at an early age, noting with a laugh that 'up to the age of eight, you’re fearless and don’t talk yourself out of jumping off the board. “But those who have done those sports at a younger age and have subsequently given them up will still have those pathways somewhere – I'd say they are the Cambridge students who could take up diving and get all the way to the top.” They give you an insane level of aerial awareness that allows you to fly through the air.” “Certain neurone pathways that are needed for that kind of success must be built early on, ideally through sports like gymnastics, trampolining or diving. However, when pushed, the Cheltenham-born Olympian does admit that if Cambridge students with no acrobatic experience were going to “aim for the Olympics”, they may run into some difficulties. So you end up fine-tuning and conditioning your body by training outside the diving pool, either in the gym or on trampolines and gymnastic equipment.” “Divers are fighting against gravity and g-force, so they need to be powerful, explosive and dynamic too. Indeed, while those who are naturally less mobile might initially struggle with the complexities, being super bendy isn’t an advantage – you’ll just hit the water and collapse.” Nobody should dismiss trying diving because they think they’re too inflexible: you can always get more mobile through diligence, tenacity and commitment.

“I hate the phrase ‘natural talent’ because we all have potential. “It’s never too late,” he tells me earnestly. Parkside Pool in Cambridge: the training pool of Olympic bronze medalist Dan Goodfellow N Chadwick So what is Taylor’s advice for Cambridge students who have been inspired by Goodfellow – who trained at Parkside Pool next to Parker’s Piece – to have a go at diving, but question their physical capacity for it? In Cambridge, the sport has been the subject of renewed interest following local boy Dan Goodfellow’s bronze medal at Rio 2016. There is a sizeable proportion of the UK public who would agree with him: both the demand for greater coverage of, and participation in, the sport has been on the rise. That's such a rewarding activity to take part in.” There are so many different types of diving board and types of dive, and that means there'll never be a training session where you aren’t nudging against your comfort zone or nudging against the perceived boundaries of what you can or can’t do. If anyone wants to push boundaries, it’s the greatest sport for it. 'Diving always had something extra for me. “It was the combination of the thrill of the sport and the level I was able to achieve that swayed me – when you’re that age, you absolutely love the feeling of winning”. “But I gravitated towards diving in the end,” he explains. Yet it could have all turned out so differently: aged 11, Taylor was ranked 16th in the country for swimming and fourth for gymnastics, as well as first for diving. Following his retirement in 2008, he mentored wonder-kid Tom Daley, became the voice of the BBC's diving coverage and squeezed in judging ITV’s diving reality show Splash! for good measure. He secured further honours at the World Championships and the Commonwealth Games, and managed to find the time to invent the ‘World's Hardest Dive’. Having begun the sport aged just eight, he went on to claim Team GB's first Olympic diving medal in 44 years at the 2004 Athens Olympics with a silver in the men's synchronised 10-metre platform. It is hard to describe Leon Taylor as anything but ‘Mr Diving’.

Olympic diving commentator