Britain’s Tom Daley and diving partner Matty Lee have won the Olympic gold medal in the men’s synchronized 10m platform dive in Tokyo. The pair narrowly beat China’s CAO Yuan and CHEN Aisen, who took silver. Russia’s Aleksandr Bondar and Viktor Minibaev took bronze.
Daley, 27, and Lee, 23, scored 471.81 points: just 1.23 points ahead of China.
Daley celebrated the win on Instagram:
Here is their final dive, China’s final dive, and the moment when Daley and Lee realized they had won gold. (The video may not be available in your country yet…you’ll have to settle for the flipbook version below)
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
Here it is in images:
(All images via NBC/YouTube) Better than nothing!
🇬🇧🥇 Here’s the moment Tom Daley and Matty Lee realised they had won gold for #TeamGB.
🙌 Amazing scenes!#bbcolympics #tokyo2020
— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) July 26, 2021
And here’s the emotional moment when they took the medal podium.
❤️ What an emotional moment for Tom Daley and Matty Lee.
This gold meant so much.
Reaction: https://t.co/X9XIN9s0kF#bbcolympics #tokyo2020 #teamgb pic.twitter.com/ydJ9IjFymV
— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) July 26, 2021
This was Daley’s fourth Olympic appearance. He made his Olympic debut 13 years ago at the age of just 14. He previously won bronze medals in 2012 (in London) and 2016 (in Rio).
“I can’t believe after all the years it’s finally happened,” Daley told the BBC reporter Nick Hope. Lee added, “I just have no words, it’s just amazing to share this with Tom.”
Related: Tom Daley addresses age gap with husband Dustin Lance Black… and how to deal with haters
Daley’s husband, Dustin Lance Black, posted: “No words! So so many tears! @TomDaley1994 you’re an OLYMPIC CHAMPION! Congratulations Tom and @MattyLee!”
No words! So so many tears! @TomDaley1994 you’re an OLYMPIC CHAMPION! Congratulations Tom and @MattyLee!
— Dustin Lance Black (@DLanceBlack) July 26, 2021
Black also posted an adorable video to his Instagram stories of him reacting to Daley and Lee’s dive, which he watched with Daley’s mother, Debbie.
Black later posted a tweet that matched his reaction with the dive.
Seems we didn’t dream this last night! Ahhhh! 🤦♂️ https://t.co/6O9rRez0ib
— Dustin Lance Black (@DLanceBlack) July 26, 2021
“I am a gay man and also an Olympic champion”
At a press conference after the pair’s win, Daley said he hopes his achievement would inspire other LGBT people and make them realize, “No matter how alone you feel right now, you are not alone, and you can achieve anything. And there is a whole lot of your chosen family out here ready to support you.”
“I feel incredibly proud to say I am a gay man and also an Olympic champion.”
“I feel very empowered by that because when I was younger I never thought I was going to be anything or achieve anything because of who I was, and to be an Olympic champion now shows that you can achieve anything.
“I feel incredibly proud to say I am a gay man and also an Olympic champion.”
Gold medal winner Tom Daley says he hopes his performance will inspire young LGBT people to realise “you can achieve anything”.
Read more: https://t.co/9b5sr5kcZe pic.twitter.com/XCFyZR5S7A
— LBC (@LBC) July 26, 2021
Related: Tom Daley achieves record-breaking win – and his son’s reaction is priceless
Jake123
Such an amazing achievement for LGBT+ in sports. He’s definitely an icon and a future legend.
GlobeTrotter
What does being gay have to do with being an Olympian? Congratulations to Tom Daley and all, but the identity politics is really wearing thin. You can’t watch the news or read an article nowadays without being confronted with everyone’s identity. How about just being a person, just celebrating yourself for being you? Who cares about sexuality or identity? Just treat others as you’d like to be treated. The only person interested in your sexuality is the person you sleep with, no one else cares or should care.
Let’s just all be human beings, and not a color, not a sexuality, not an identity and not a string of pronouns. Geez, no wonder mental health issues are at an all time high!
mailliw110
So Queerty is either not gay enough or too gay. Which is it?
GlobeTrotter
@mailliw110: What does Queerty have to do with any of this? I simply pointed out that it’s ridiculous to seek validation outside of one’s self. Take pride in your accomplishments, not in something you had no part in shaping, like skin color or sexuality.
People that do seek validation in identity invariably end up with a mental health crisis later on in life.
Jake123
I agree with you in some of what you said. A persons race, sexuality gender really isn’t relevant in some issues. But sport is different, to me anyway. I was bullied in the changing rooms in school when I was growing up. To the point we’re I just gave up participating in gym class and sports in general. Now I was never particularly good at sports but if I had a talent for it that would be a real loss. I’m sure there are a lot of people who are or were in a similar situation to me and I suppose seeing an out athlete as an Olympic World champion would convince those who might have a future in sports to stick at it despite the bullying. That they have as much right and talent to be in those changing rooms as anyone else.
Cam
It doesn’t matter the post, whenever there is a situation where somebody is openly out of the closet, the same old right wing troll comes in under one of it’s screenames to complain about them being out and public about it.
Of COURSE this angers you, right wingers want us all to disappear back in the closet and any time somebody like Tom Daley does something like this, that goal gets farther and farther away from you.
Your troll game is sad and weak.
JessPH
In a world where people tend to fear and hate what they don’t understand, positive gay representation and visibility are important because they help people learn about other people they may not be familiar with. Gay representation and visibility help normalize gay people especially in sports where there is a lot of homophobia.
GlobeTrotter
@Jake123: If we’d known each other when you were a youth, I would have told you that the reason they bullied you was because they were jealous of you. Whenever insecure individuals encounter a person they admire, but are wracked with feelings of intimidation and fear, they will often put down or hurt the individual they admire in order to protect their fragile insecurities – especially if they happen to be larger in size. The more you cry and hurt, the better they feel about themselves. This most likely had nothing whatsoever to do with your sexuality, but something within you that your oppressor deeply admired, but could never have.
A person with a healthy sense of self-confidence would have most likely introduced himself to you and tried to acquire that admired trait through a caring and reciprocal friendship. A bully is someone lacking that self-confidence, and so they try to achieve a false sense of self-confidence by hurting others.
The point is, a healthy sense of pride is based on attained achievements. This type of pride is sustainable and leads to healthy self-confidence. Whenever we start to find pride in immutable traits and community identity, like race, skin color, sexuality, etc., we’re setting ourselves up for a major crisis of self-confidence later in life. The aforementioned traits are empty and any sense of fulfillment they offer is temporary an fleeting at best. When the high wears off and we come tumbling down back to earth, there is no long-lasting sense of healthy self-confidence to cushion our fall. It is then that people star to experience mental health issues.
THAT’S why I spoke so strongly about taking pride in being gay. Tom Daley should take pride in what he’s accomplished, not because he did so as a gay man.
GlobeTrotter
@JessPH: I’m sorry but I can’t support that statement, even though it reflects the prevailing popular mentality. We should NEVER look outside ourselves for validation. We should NEVER need to see visibility in order to know our sense of worth. This is a false doctrine that came out of the 80’s and 90’s and has done great harm to untold numbers of teenagers and young adults.
Self-love and self-confidence must come from within and never be depended on external influences. The minute your sense of worth becomes dependent on seeing others like you in positions of visibility, then you don’t really love yourself for who you are, but for what group you belong to or for what someone represents. This is one of the major false popular, feel-good doctrines responsible for the current mental health crisis.
Be yourself and love yourself independent of anyone else. That’s the key to self-confidence and resilience in the face of insurmountable challenges.
Mattster
What an obtuse comment. LGBTQ pride is an important endeavor given the context of shame that sexual and gender minorities endure worldwide. If we want this atmosphere to change, work must be done, and this includes being visible to destroy negative stereotypes. Pretending we can all just act as though homophobia and transphobia don’t exist is foolhardy.
Your conflation of “identity politics” with mental illness is idiotic. It is minority invisibility and shame, not identity politics, that promotes mental illness, as numerous studies have shown.
And if you so detest “identity politics”, why are you visiting (and commenting) at this site? Go to the myriad other sites where LGBTQ invisibility (and the accompanying shame) is perpetuated.
BoomerMyles
When LGBT people are being legally discriminated against in this country, China and Russia and sentenced to death in Muslim countries this is a big f’n deal!
Mack
Jealous much? Or just another right wing hater?
Jon in Canada
Your naivete is bad enough, your complete lack of understanding of what LGBTQ visibility means is beyond vile. Tell you what, we queers will stop pointing out that we’re queer when ALL of society gets a clue and treats us as just another citizen or person; however until then, we still need queer people, especially those in positions of high visibility, to step out and step up. That you find this trite or tedious speaks to your utter disdain for queers everywhere. And yes, it is disdain to so casually dismiss the, unfortunately still, need for visibility and acknowledgment. You’re either just a nasty purposely ignorant Homocon or some twisted troll; either way, what you are not is an ally of our people.
kush66
@Globetrotter, the world you outline is one we’d all love to live in. But that isn’t our reality. From what I’ve read about Daley, he’d prefer to just be an Olympian champion as well. However, as long as gay men and women are not only not allowed to participate in society in many parts of the world but are persecuted and killed, it is important for the Tom Daleys to achieve their accomplishments and highlight that they are gay.
skeldare
Would love to but:
“This video is not available in your country”
What the hell?
Mattster
Olympic broadcasting rights are expensive, those that pay the fees are vigilant and litigious about making sure they are not undermined by other broadcasters or sites. This is why, in the U.S., networks other than NBC only show still photographs or press conferences/interviews and not footage of the competition itself. NBC paid the Olympic committee billions to have the US rights. If you are logging in from Belgium or South Africa the rights may be different.
Kangol2
Congrats to Tom Daley and Matty Lee! And yes, being openly gay on the world stage does matter, especially given that millions are still be oppressed because of this fundamental aspect of who they ar.
skyboy63
I am a proud gay man and when one of us does well I celebrate it. Did that become a bad thing? Oh well, rock on Tom.
mikeTigg
Absolutely agree with you.
Prinny
So much for him being bisexual
john.k
Lots of us started out claiming to be bisexual.
Gourmet Guy
Mattster, I couldn’t have thought or said it better. And I devoted the majority of my adult life to gay publishing; I was the editor of “Christopher Street” magazine and “New York Native” back in the day. I can’t tell you how truly gratifying it is to encounter such thoughtful, intelligent, and ultimately supportive souls such as yours.
Skyboy63, you nailed it too.
Mattster
Gourmet Guy—I read lots of the CSR back in the day, thanks for all your work, it made a big difference!
GayEGO
Excellent news! Congrats to Tom Daley and Matty Lee!
BoomerMyles
So happy for Tom but let’s also give credit to Matthew Mitchum, first out athlete to win a gold with his 2008 diving win that broke the winning streak of the Chineze men’s team.
I’d also give a shout out to Greg Louganis though he wasn’t out when he won his medals (but he was living silently with HIV).
Jazz
Hear hear, absolutely
lykeitiz
So glad both of those men got a mention here.
Fahd
Congratulations on the gold! At a time in history when authoritarian regimes have passed/are passing laws about “homosexual propaganda” and otherwise making life miserable for their gay citizens, it is the right thing to do and commendable for an Olympic champion like Tom Daley to proclaim his sexuality from the mountainside. The Olympics is an international event. Visibility is more important than ever (Remember: silence = death)
mikeTigg
Well said!
AxelDC
Tom can put his gold medal next to his husband’s Oscar.
Such a great moment for him. He’s earned it and well deserves it.
TedV
This is a nonsensical comment. If being gay is not something you feel is relevant, why on earth have you come to a gay website? Very curious behavior, unless you’re actually just looking to be negative and cantankerous.
JoshGL
The last time I screeched like that they asked me to leave that Denny’s.
Cam
I could show him what I want him to do with that gold. And the rest of his fist. Oh shut up about it. Your troll game is sad and weak, just save it.
Cam
Awww, I see the right wing troll account is still trying to steal my screenname.
I love that your obsession with me is so all encompassing that it’s taking up this much of your time.
Sweetie, how embarrassing for you. Your right wing trolling failed so badly, that now you’ve been reduced to spending all of your time trolling a single person instead of an entire LGBTQ site. LOL
Now back to Tom Daley, good for him, Thank you for being out and proud.
inoroutdoor
Makes me think about the great diver Greg Louganis, won gold in two consecutive olympics, probably would have won gold in 1980 if US hadn’t boycotted. I’m sure Greg would have been happy to make a statement like Tom did about being gay. But it was different times then. Tom should be happy he competes in the 21st Century. He should also appreciate LGBQT athletes that came before him and couldn’t be out
CMath90606
AMEN and AMEN!!
flim
he does appreciate Greg/ they did a video together where they dived in synchro
CMath90606
As a 69 year old gay man who knew he was gay at the age of 12, I salute Tom and Matty and in this day and age, having gone through what I went through, I just say: IT JUST DOES’NT MATTER, IT JUST DOES’NT MATTER!!!!
JustMuscles1
I saw their dives and that last one was spectacular. I sat in my room with my cast ankle and almost toppled as I cheered one thing that is kissing in your report was that great moment when Tom jumped and wrapped his legs.around Matty’s taught body. “That” was a picture etched in my mind forever! And yes, their spectacular 101.3 dive.