British sensation Tom Daley feels the Diving World Series has helped raise the profile of the sport and sees no reason why diving can’t become as popular around the globe as it is in China.
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The Chinese have been a dominant force in international diving, winning nine of a possible 10 gold medals at the last world championships in Barcelona and six of a possible eight in the London 2012 Olympics.
They swept all 10 golds in 2011 Worlds in Shanghai, and took seven out of eight at the Beijing Olympics.
#500DaysToGo until @Rio2016 
last training session here in Dubai this afternoon! Back to London… https://t.co/sWMPJQS5eN
— Tom Daley (@TomDaley1994) March 24, 2015
Diving is considered one of the top sports in China and Daley, an Olympic bronze medallist, explained how it is always a full house whenever he competes there – most recently in the opening leg of the World Series in Beijing.
“In China it’s one of their main sports, like in England it would be football and rugby, over there it’s diving, table tennis, badminton that kind of stuff. It’s a full house for the finals, the atmosphere is great. They love their diving over there but I don’t see any reason why it couldn’t be like that here (in Dubai) and in all the other countries too,” Daley told Sport360°.
“I think the Diving World Series is making diving a bit more of a popular sport. Because people want to come and watch it. Particularly in London it is getting bigger and bigger every year. And here I’ve seen lots of people come to watch and cheer on their favourite countries.”
Daley claimed in silver in Dubai last weekend, placing a familiar second behind China’s Qiu Bo in the 10m platform.
In that same event, Chinese Yang Jian is becoming quite the threat and even though American David Boudia caused a shock by taking gold at the London Olympics three years ago, Daley knows his main competition will always be the Chinese.
But he prefers not to obsess about his rivals.
“You have to focus on your own performance because you can’t control what they’re (the Chinese) doing. You have to make sure you’re doing everything you can to try and improve yourself and get better and get better. You don’t want to waste energy on them, thinking about what they’re doing,” he insists.
