Tom Daley is opening up about his struggles with body image.
The 31-year-old Olympic diver is often baring his body on Instagram or wearing just a small speedo while competing, but that doesn’t mean he’s always happy with how he looks.
Tom took some clothes off for a new photo shoot and feature in The Times and he admitted in the interview, “I struggled over there.”
“I hate the way I look,” Tom told the magazine. “I’ve always had such horrible body issues going through my diving career. Now I’m not an athlete that trains six hours a day, I especially hate it.”
While most people will assume that Tom looks the same right now as he does when he’s in his prime for competition, he doesn’t feel that way.
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“I know if I’m rational about it, I should be completely happy, but seeing videos of what I looked like in the Olympics, I’m, like, why can’t I look like that again?” he said.
Tom says he works out for “just” one hour each day after retiring from diving. Exercising these days comes from hikes at Los Angeles’ Runyon Canyon Park, running around Lake Hollywood, or going to the gym.
“It feels as though that part of me that was a diver is dead,” he said. “When I watch competitions [on TV] it’s as if I’m a spirit looking in from above, thinking, ‘If I was in that, I would have done this.’ It’s really hard. You’ve got to be in it to win it. But when you’re sitting on the sidelines it’s like you’ve been benched for eternity.”
Tom is married to Oscar-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black and they have two kids, who cheered him on to a win at the Olympics last year.
Source: justjared.com