Tom Daley Speaks About The Sporting World: “It’s Probably One Of The Most Heteronormative Spaces”
Olympic diver Tom Daley has taken time away from the pool after his win at the Tokyo Games in 2022. In a new interview with The Independent, Daley talks about the perspective that his time off has given him and discusses how he feels about the current state of the sporting world.
SPORTS HAS A LONG WAY TO GO
Tom Daley is credited as being among the earliest Olympic athletes to be openly gay – he’s certainly one of the most prolific – and he is known for being very vocal about LGBTQIA+ inclusion in the world of sports.
In June, the water sports moderation organisation FINA decided to ban transgender women from competing and Daley was among those who protested the decision publicly. The 28-year-old diver also used his appearance at the Commonwealth Games to show solidarity with the queer community. When FIFA announced they would host the World Cup in Qatar, an infamously anti-gay country, Daley also spoke out, reports The Independent.
Daley reportedly cares deeply about standing for those who are vulnerable and he believes that the sporting world has a lot of progress still to make. “We should be sending out a message to everyone that everyone is welcome no matter who you are, where you come from, your gender, race, sexual orientation, religion, whatever it is, everyone should feel welcome when they try sport,” he says.
Daley goes on to say in this interview that people often proclaim that discrimination in sports is just how it is. “In most businesses there isn’t that exclusion. And if there is that then there’s lots of HR people that would step in,” he says. “It’s this form of entertainment, essentially, for lots of people around the world. Yet it’s probably one of the most heteronormative spaces. Men have to be masculine and are only able to do it a certain way.”
Tom Daley has a massive platform with over three million followers on Instagram and over two million on Twitter. He has been using this platform and his popularity in the media to endorse change in the arena where he built his career. “If people, especially LGBTQIA+ people, or any minority really, get complacent with the rights that we have, if we don’t continue to try and fight for more equality and more legal protection, then people will come and take them away,” he says.
