Coming Up for Air

I read Tom's book and Lance's (Mama's Boy) very close together and I'm glad I did. Even though both are very personal, they also reveal quite a bit about their journey's as gay men. Now as a couple, they will be continuing their story together. I'm hoping for a future co-written book showing their journey as husbands and fathers.

Tom's story is so interesting. His book offers readers a good look into his life preparing for Olympic diving and the focus that comes to an Olympic athlete.

Olympic gold medal-winning diver Tom Daley's memoir, COMING UP FOR AIR, is an inspiring, moving and honest examination of a gay athlete's life. Daley (Tom's Daily Goals) was 14 when he participated in his first Olympics in 2008, and at age 15, he became Britain's first individual diving world champion, winning a gold medal at the FINA World Championships in Rome. There's a lot about diving and training in this memoir, but Daley is also very open about the debilitating physical and mental stress he experienced.

The memoir is broken into 11 chapters with titles such as "Perseverance," "Acceptance," "Motivation," "Endurance," etc., that focus on individual traits that helped Daley accomplish his goals. These chapters are both how-to and tell-all in nature. In the heartbreaking and tender "Courage" chapter, he recounts the experience of losing his father to a brain tumor and, before he can process his grief, returning to training. He also meets his future husband, Oscar-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, who helps him confront his inability to let people get close to him. Black also helps him realize that "diving was something I could do but it wasn't who I was. This realisation brought with it a profound sense of freedom and release."

Few memoirs by athletes are as brutally candid as Daley's. He details his panic attacks, an eating disorder and body image issues as well as a plethora of physical illnesses, including pneumonia, a concussion, a Covid infection and a secret knee surgery several months before the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Written with charm and an open heart, Daley's memoir is irresistible.

A diver, a career and a long journey.

Tom Daley is well known for his time in the pool. He’s a professional diver and he’s competed at the highest levels. If you watched him in London in 2012, then there was some fantastic diving. This book is about that, but it’s also about him as a person. This isn’t a run-of-the-mill autobiography. It’s almost like a conversation with friends and a self-therapy session. The writing flows well, again like a conversation among friends, and kept me engaged throughout.

Daley talks about his struggles in the pool. It’s not always great and sometimes it’s bad. He talks about how he got through those times and honestly, it was helpful to see how he dealt with his struggles. He’s relatable. I liked learning about his journey to meeting and marrying his husband as well as his struggles in and out of the pool. Not because I wanted to see his faults, but it humanized him. He talks about his father being not the average sport parent, but just being a parent. When he’d struggle, his father wasn’t pushing him to the point of being terrible, but rather he pushed by not pushing. He let his son figure things out on his own. Reading about his father’s struggle with cancer and passing added a dimension to the story and again humanized them all.

If you’re looking for a sweet, funny at times, sad at times, but wholly engrossing, then this might be the book for you.

originally posted at long and short reviews

The story told is touching understanding what gay people come through and become accomplished. Important to understand and share.