Tom Daley remembers fairly vividly his first time at a homosexual bar. The Olympic gold medalist diver was 19 on the time and it was the evening earlier than he got here out in a YouTube video.

“There was this towering drag queen and all of those folks simply being free,” Daley, now 31, remembers on at the moment’s episode of the “Only for Selection” podcast. “I used to be like, ‘This world of having the ability to simply be your self and never fear about who’s watching was so like, oh my gosh.’ It was the primary time that I went from being scared to being enthusiastic about popping out and having the ability to simply care much less about what different folks assume.”

And he hasn’t regarded again. Since then, he often hears from different queer – and sometimes closeted – athletes. “They don’t know what to do, how you can navigate and clearly popping out in sure locations is a really totally different expertise than popping out within the U.Ok. or the U.S., so it may be fairly harmful,” Daley says.  “I all the time say to them that I will be there as a sounding board simply because it’s a very lonely expertise.”

Daley’s life is chronicled within the new documentary, “Tom Daley: 1.6 Seconds.” The movie follows his childhood within the U.Ok., competing in a number of Olympics (he earned his lifelong dream of a gold medal in 2020), the dying of his father when he was nonetheless a teen and his present life in Los Angeles, the place he lives together with his husband, Oscar profitable screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, and their two sons.

“I wasn’t positive about doing it initially,” Daley says of the doc, which is out there on Discovery+ and Olympics.com. “After which I assumed, ‘You understand what? That is one thing that I’d love to have the ability to then present my youngsters sooner or later and have the ability to be like, ‘Look, that is what Papa did. That is the factor that Papa was doing day in, day trip’ And the issues that I did, and have the ability to get to know the connection I had with my dad and all of that stuff.”

He says he needed to ask to take a break from filming most frequently when the director, Vaughan Sivell, confirmed movies with him and his father.  “I mannequin a number of my parenting and plenty of the issues that I do day by day round what I discovered from my dad,” Daley says. “He my greatest cheerleader. He was there for each coaching session, each competitors, and he was an enormous a part of my life, day in, day trip.

“Shedding him was some of the troublesome issues that I ever needed to take care of,” he continues. “But I used to be coping with that in a really public manner within the U.Ok. Wanting again on all of that footage was fairly difficult to observe as a result of I felt actually sorry for the youthful Tom that I sort of was simply carrying on and placing on a courageous face, and I didn’t ever need to trouble anybody with how I used to be feeling as a result of I didn’t need to ever make anybody else really feel uncomfortable. I feel if that’s one factor that I hope folks get from the documentary is that it’s okay to lean on different folks for assist.”

Daley additionally opens about going through physique picture points. All of it started when somebody talked about to him throughout his diving profession that his physique was altering, that he wasn’t as lean and toned as he as soon as was. “I nonetheless wrestle with it,” Daley says. “I’ve gone from coaching six hours a day, six days every week, to now being retired. Folks all the time have an expectation of what I appear like. And so it may be fairly a problem, however on the similar time, it may be fairly laborious. However I’ve to study the brand new me, what’s that regime that I’ve by way of figuring out what I can and may’t eat.”

He says he’s frequently engaged on accepting the place he’s at the moment. “I do know rationally I’m doing simply nice, however there’s all the time a part of me that is aware of that when you understand what you may appear like as an Olympic athlete in your peak and the way laborious that was to get there, it’s difficult to know that you simply may not ever appear like that once more,” Daley says.

Whereas there aren’t any plans for a scripted function about his life, I ask Daley who he’d need to play him in a film. “Tom Holland,” he says. “He’s acquired the gymnastic-y vibe. I really feel like we’re fairly comparable in that. So I reckon Tom Holland might perhaps do this.”

And who would painting his husband, who gained the unique screenplay Oscar in 2009 for “Milk”?

Daley smiles, “I feel he would undoubtedly need to solid Joel Kinnaman to play himself.”

After we talked, Delight Month was simply a few weeks away. Daley mirrored on what this time of yr means to him. “It’s a extremely necessary time to recollect the place we got here from relatively than simply being there to benefit from the festivities of all of it,” he says. “I feel that’s one thing that we all the time should preserve on the entrance of our minds, however for me it’s about combating for freedom and persevering with to combat for the freedoms and the liberties that individuals earlier than us have fought for. And it’s about creating change for the long run and for the youthful generations.”

You may take heed to the total dialog with Daley on “Only for Selection” above or wherever you discover your favourite podcasts.