Olympics: Daley Attracts Attention But All He Wants to Have is Fun

Tom Daley, pleasantly cocksure and deeply tanned, sat confidently in the middle of the strongest diving team Britain has ever sent to the Olympics. With 10 athletes here, Britain is one of just five nations to be represented in every diving event. But there's no doubt who their star is.

Despite all the excitement surrounding him - and his press conference drew an international audience - Daley was reticent about his chances at his first Olympics. "I'm just here for the experience and the fun," he said. "It's always been my dream to come to the games, but I'm not expecting to win anything, I'd rather work harder for London 2012 and win a medal there. I just want to go out there and have fun. If I do something bad, that's fine, I'll learn from it and take it on to 2012."

Daley has clearly taken to the Olympics like the proverbial duck to water. This morning, he reported, he had breakfast with Jamie Murray and last night he had his photo taken with Rafael Nadal. "People have been coming up to me in the streets and around the village," Daley continued. "It's weird, when you're little you always dream of being that person who people recognize, it's really weird."

Diving is popular in China, and their team is phenomenally strong. Britain's performance director, Steve Foley, admitted that it wouldn't be surprising to see China clean sweep the gold medals, but he also suggested that the men's platform individual and synchronized were "wide open". These are Daley's events.

His partner in the synchronized event, Blake Aldridge, described how diving with Daley had helped reinvigorate his diving. "I've been in the sport for 21 years, but this is my first Olympics," Aldridge said. "He's a breath of fresh air to dive with. Diving with Tom keeps me young in my mind and body."

Daley's entire family is coming to watch him dive, "My mum and Dad, my three brothers, both grandparents and their business partners. Twelve people in all." With the synchronized event starting on Monday, he'll soon have to get used to bigger crowds than that.