According to the American Psychiatric Association, only 20-29% of American LGBTQ+ youth participate in sports compared to almost 70% of their counterparts doing so. Despite this disparity in participation, the NCAA’s 2023 Student-Athlete Health and Wellness Study indicates that LGBTQ+ athletes are still among the most likely to experience mental health struggles. Furthermore, a 2017 qualitative study of elite divers revealed that many athletes operate in environments where mental health is poorly understood, stigmatized, and shaped by performance pressure and rigid gender expectations—conditions that can be especially harmful for LGBTQ+ individuals navigating both athletic and identity-related challenges. One athlete who has not only faced these challenges but become a powerful advocate for change is Olympic diver Tom Daley.
Daley entered his first Olympics as a member of Team Great Britain in 2008 at just fourteen years old, going on to participate in five Olympic games and winning a total of five bronze medals, three silver medals, and one gold medal. The openly gay diver (and famed knitter) has been open not only about the keys to these successes, but also about his mental health struggles. In a 2021 interview with The Guardian, Daley shared that he struggled for years with body image issues due to the unrealistic expectations set upon him by his sport, noting that in his late teens, he would make himself throw up in efforts to conform to those standards. In a 2025 interview with Glamour, he went on to say that he “thought men didn’t have eating disorders” and refrained from seeking help for fear of being misunderstood or perceived as a burden. At the same time, Daley was also debating whether to come out as gay and had just lost his father to brain cancer.
Following his father’s death, Daley threw himself into training, using diving as an escape to avoid painful feelings and memories. It was not until he came out as gay in 2013 and met his now-husband, Dustin Lance Black, that he recognized he could not keep carrying on and pretending as if nothing happened. It was this realization that finally prompted Daley to process the loss and experience “a delayed grief moment,” sharing memories of his father and revisiting activities they used to do together.
Today, Daley is speaking out against bullying and the anti-LGBTQ+ sentiments present in pockets of modern culture. In a recent interview with Sky News, Daley highlighted the importance of minorities joining together to uplift each other for the greater good in the face of the “rights of LGBT people… being reversed, or being dangerously threatened.” His BBC documentary, “Tom Daley: Illegal to be Me” follows the athlete as he travels to Commonwealth countries where homosexuality is criminalized, advocating for LGBTQ+ rights. These efforts earned him an Order of the British Empire in 2022, awarded to him by King Charles in recognition of his achievements in “services to diving, LGBTQ+ rights and charity.”Reflecting on his journey in an interview with HuffPost, Daley emphasized the importance of mental mental health, saying, “I feel as I got older, I realized the importance of mental health and mental training because we spend all of our life training our bodies to be able to do the thing, but if you don’t train your brain as well, how do you know if you’re going to be able to hold it together in competition?” He now advocates for young athletes to practice mindfulness, develop healthy coping strategies, and lean on their support systems to navigate the pressures of performance and identity. Central to his message is the power of kindness, compassion, and understanding, both toward others and oneself. “I struggled for a long time with feeling comfortable in my own skin,” Daley told Glamour, “whether that was with who I was, growing up gay, or being an athlete.” With 78% of people still believing that sports aren’t safe for LGBTQ+ youth, voices like Daley’s are vital in challenging stigma, reshaping athletic culture, and paving the way for future generations to compete—and thrive—with pride.
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