As Tom Daley carries the flag for team GB for the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics, his father who sadly passed away before the 2012 games is never far from his mind
Tom Daley's late father, Robert, had a heartbreaking request for his son just days before he passed away in 2011, as he asked the Olympic diver if they had secured tickets to watch him compete at London 2012.
The gold medalist recalled how he was called back from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, by his mother when she knew his beloved dad only had a few days left. Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs, Tom opened up about those final devastating hours and his ongoing mission to make his family proud. Every Olympics holds a special significance for Tom. "I get home and I see my dad in a hospital bed in the living room," he told host Lauren Laverne back in 2018.
"I thought, 'Tickets for what? ' And he said: 'Those London 2012 tickets, because I want to be right on the front row.' And I was like, 'Oh my goodness', because I didn't know how to say to him 'You're not going to be around to be on the front row, Dad.' It was the next day, when all of our family and friends were around and he had gone unconscious. We were watching his chest. I was holding his hand as he stopped breathing.
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