Tom Daley’s Splash Axed – Don’t Be Sad

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Tom Daley fans have been given more bad news this week after ITV announced the celeb diving show Splash would not be coming back for a third series. This is after a second series for Tom Daley Goes Global was not given the go ahead.

Though it has been great to have Tom in our living rooms on a Saturday night, (particularly in his diving kit) I personally am not too disappointed. Having followed Tom since his appearance at the Beijing Olympics back in 2008 the highlight of the London 2012 games for me was not Super Thursday, when Team GB were winning gold after gold in the athletic events, it was when Tom realised a dream of his, to win an Olympic medal on home soil. I remember being bitterly disheartened at the results of the synchronised diving where he and his partner, Pete Waterfield were knocked down from second to fourth place after a poor dive. I was overjoyed for him when he was up on the podium. It is my hope that we will see Tom once again on the medal platform in two years’ time representing Team GB in Rio de Janeiro. It is with this in mind that I don’t mind a lack of Tom on our TVs in order for him to focus on his next big challenge.

It can be argued that these decisions were down to ratings. It is true that Tom Daley Goes Global pulled in around 400,000 viewers with Season two’s opening episode of Splash pulling in 4.96 million viewers compared to 5.5 million for the launch episode of season one. 4.96 million over 21% lower than the lowest viewing figures for season one. 15.9 million tuned in for Tom’s Olympic dive on the BBC alone (That’s 3 million more than those that watched Mo Farah win gold on Super Thursday)so these numbers will look small in comparison. However ITV have commented. For Tom Daley Goes Global they stated it was only meant as a one-off series following Tom on a backpacking experience that people of his age carry out. As for Splash, they have said they want to work with Tom in the future but know that he has a lot of training ahead of Rio 2016.

Don’t panic, we don’t have to wait two years until he graces our screens with his presence once again. With the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow starting on the 23^rd July Tom will be representing England alongside other English Divers such as Chris Mears and Jack Laugher.

We will have to wait until the 31^st July to see Tom in action to defend his two gold medals from Delhi’s Commonwealth Games.

In interviews after his coming out video, Tom had said he was demotivated after the London Olympics. “It was extremely tough to go all my life working towards the London Olympics and then it was over.” “Once it was gone it was tough to get back in the pool.” It would appear to me that he has quickly shaken that off with a string of successes. 2013 saw him compete strongly in the FINA Diving World Series despite several injuries, coming first in Edinburgh, First in the British Championships and with a tear to his tricep he still managed to come sixth at the FINA World Championships in Barcelona. 2014 FINA World Series has seen Tom come third in Beijing, fourth in Dubai, fifth in London, fourth in Windsor (Canada) and the final leg in Monterrey (Mexico) saw Tom come second with a personal best for a Back 3 ½ Somersault Pike, perfect 10s across the board. The competition is tough with the same names fighting for the top three spots including London 2012 Gold medal winner, David Boudia (USA) and Silver medallist Qiu Bo (China). Tom will not have to compete against these two divers in Glasgow however he will be up against fellow gay diver and 2008 Olympic gold medalist Matthew Mitcham from Australia.