Life
Olympic diver knits himself a ‘medal cozy’ to celebrate his win and protect his prize
"๐Ÿงถ Learning to knit and crochet has helped me so much through these Olympics and we won GOLD yesterday ๐Ÿฅ‡ I made a little medal case too!"
Laura Shallcross
08.03.21

Becoming an Olympic athlete is something that most of us could never hope to achieve.

Not only do you have to have a talent for a particular sport; you also have to have huge amounts of perseverance and drive to withstand hours of training, pushing your body to the very limit – and the very real potential for failure.

Jonathan Chng/ Unsplash
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Jonathan Chng/ Unsplash

There are thousands of exceptional athletes out there, but not all have what it takes to compete in the Olympics.

On average, it takes four to eight years of training in a sport before an athlete even has a chance of making an Olympic team.

This takes planning in advance – years in advance – if an athlete wants a shot during their period of peak performance in life.

Monstera/ Pexels
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Monstera/ Pexels

With this in mind, it’s easy to understand just how much a gold medal means to Olympic athletes.

In the run-up to the Tokyo 2021 Olympics, athletes trained just as hard as usual – but things were different.

This Olympics comes of the back of more than a year of lockdown, and many athletes took up hobbies alongside their sporting careers in a bid to beat the boredom.

British diver Tom Daley took up a particularly unique hobby: knitting and crocheting.

Perhaps this hobby isn’t unique in itself, actually – but it certainly isn’t something you’d imagine many Olympic athletes taking up.

However, Tom’s hobby really took off, and he’s been sharing his knitted and crochet creations on his Instagram account – @madewithlovebytomdaley – since September 2020.

In a post, he wrote:

“I started knitting at the beginning of lockdown and have been obsessed since.”

Of course, Tom’s main focus was still diving – and his hours of training paid off.

In this year’s event, Tom and his diving partner Matty Lee won the gold medal for the men’s synchronized 10-meter platform dive.

And what did Tom decide to do? He got straight to work knitting a custom medal “cozy” to store his Olympic achievement.

Tom Daley/ Instagram
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Tom Daley/ Instagram

Tom shared the knitted pouch on Instagram – and you have to admit, it’s very cute.

It’s clear that Tom has the athlete’s mentality: if you’re going to learn to do something, learn to do it well.

His knitting isn’t the work of a rookie. He’s clearly spent a lot of time learning patterns, and his stitching is beautifully neat.

Tom Daley/ Instagram
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Tom Daley/ Instagram

The medal cozy features the designs of Great Britain and Japan’s flags.

Tom shared his creation in an Instagram video, in which he thanked his fans and followers for supporting his two loves: diving, and knitting and crocheting.

Tom Daley/ Instagram
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Tom Daley/ Instagram

In the video’s caption, he wrote:

“THANK YOU TO ALL MY FELLOW STITCHERS! ๐Ÿงถ Learning to knit and crochet has helped me so much through these Olympics and we won GOLD yesterday ๐Ÿฅ‡ I made a little medal case too! ๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ง๐Ÿ‡ฏ๐Ÿ‡ต YAY!”

If you’re interested in checking out more of Tom’s talented creations, visit his Instagram account here.

You can watch the full video of Tom’s medal cozy reveal below!

Please SHARE this with your friends and family.

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