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29 year old British diver, Peter Waterfield, has pulled out of the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, India, because he does not want to put himself at risk (source). At risk for what? Well there have been a few recent concerns:

1.) New Delhi reports 72 new dengue fever cases – As of a few days ago, the total number of cases in the city reached 2,296 for the year. The disease is transfered by mosquitoes and produces flu-like symptoms. One strain of the disease causes severe hemorrhaging that can be fatal.

2.) Stray dogs roam the Commonwealth Games athlete village (photo).

3.) A stadium footbridge collapse injured 23 laborers (source).

4.) Following weeks of monsoon rain, “many of the basements of the residential tower blocks are flooded with stagnant water” (source).

5.) A gun attack on a tourist bus in Delhi last week (source).

6.) Peter’s wife and two children were very concerned about him attending the event – which is probably the best reason not to go!

However, British diving superstar, Tom Daley, says “of course” he is going to India! The Mail Online even called him Tom Delhi (nauseatingly clever).

Canadian diver, Reuben Ross, considered the concerns, but said it is “too big of an event to let it slide” (source). He is confident that the people working under pressure will get things done to ensure a safe environment to live and compete.

The Commonwealth Games will begin on October 3rd, 2010.

The British Swimming Foundation supports a website called “My School Lunch,” that, for whatever reason, hosts a Tom Daley blog shrine with information for schools and Tom Daley stalkers fans alike. Ok so it’s not for stalkers, it’s a tool for parents and teachers to get kids interested in diving, swimming, and overall healthy lifestyles.

On the site, you can watch videos of Tom doing exercises, check out what Tom eats on a daily basis, and print off fun activity sheets with a cartoon-ized Tom Daley. The site includes information on swimming, diving, and gymnastics!

Michael Phelps may have a children’s book, but Tom Daley seems to be fully immersed in this youth-targeted site. Because Tom is the ambassador for the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, being marketable to parents is definitely a plus.

Smithy won Sports Personality Coach of the Year at the 2010 BBC Sport Relief Night. Here is a clip from his coaching montage where he shows his frustration with Tom Daley by dunking him.

You can view the full montage (from the official BBC YouTube channel) here.

World champion diver Tom Daley doesn’t turn 16 until May, but he has already become an public icon in the UK and throughout Europe. A few months ago, Tom was photographed for Italian Vogue alongside supermodel Kate Moss in a London photo shoot by Bruce Weber.

It was reported that Tom and Kate got to know each other on the set, and Tom later asked Kate to model for his photography school project!

You can view a video slideshow set to music on Vogue’s website. Several other celebrities were featured in the fashion story “London In Love,” but Tom and Kate Moss don’t appear until 3:45 into the video.

I was unable to find the photos Tom took of Kate Moss for his school project. I’m not sure they’re even online. But if they are, I’m sure Tom has tweeted about them (@TomDaley1994) because that’s where I first heard about this Vogue shoot.

Through a post on SCAQ Blog, I came across a DailyMail article titled: Tom Daley seeks to master the most difficult dive ever… and win gold at the London Olympics. Although I love when diving gets some media hype, the article boasts some incorrect facts that should be addressed for the sake of ensuring that online diving reports are accurate.

So in short, ‘The Twister’ isn’t the name of the dive, it isn’t the hardest dive ever done, and the degree of difficulty was incorrectly reported because it was changed as of September 15, 2009. If you want more of a breakdown, read on…

The article mainly talks about how British diving sensation, and current FINA World Champion in the Platform event, Tom Daley is preparing for the London 2012 Games. Tom has become something of a teen idol in England because of his success in diving – which is phenomenal – but all the more reason to be thorough when researching a report.

First, the author renames the back 2 1/2 somersault 2 1/2 twist in pike (5255B) ‘The Twister.’ Now, I’m not sure if Tom and his coach call it The Twister for short because it is the dive he was working on for a while, or if the author just didn’t want to write out “back 2 1/2 somersault 2 1/2 twist,” but The Twister is not the name of the dive.

Second, the article makes it sound like Tom Daley will be attempting the hardest dive ever done. While the 5255B was the dive used to score the highest single dive total in an Olympic competition (Matthew Mitcham, 2008, for 112.10 points) it is surely not the hardest dive ever performed. It was, however, the dive with the highest DD at the FINA World Championships, where 7 of the 12 finalists completed it successfully.

For the record, the forward 2 1/2 somersault 3 twist pike (with a higher DD of 3.9) has been performed in competition 3 times in the past 12 months, according to DiveMeets.com

Third, with the release of the updated FINA Degree of Difficulty table, the 5255B isn’t even the dive with the highest degree of difficulty. In fact, the dive’s degree of difficulty has been reduced from 3.8 to 3.6.

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Found via IHeartDiving.com, World Champion diver Tom Daley is modeling graphic tees for Harriet Jones Clothing. Tom, age 15, was already a familiar British sports star before winning the world title on 10m platform – but now his celebrity has increased.

Telegraph.co.uk even wrote an article titled: Tom Daley and Laura Robson appear to flirt on Twitter.