I've found a second passion in life

AFTER RETIRING FROM DIVING, TOM DALEY IS TRYING TO GET MORE PEOPLE - INCLUDING THE YOUNG - TO TAKE UP THE KNITTING AND CROCHETING HE LOVES SO MUCH.

- BY LISA SALMON

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.

Tom, 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 the craft after Tom 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.

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."

Tom, 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 smiles. "The whole thing still seems slightly absurd."