Tom Daley shows off new Team GB kit ahead of Paris 2024 Olympics
Tom Daley is set to be Team GB’s most high-profile LGBTQ+ athlete at the Paris 2024 Olympics. (Adidas)
In advance of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, Team GB and ParalympicsGB have released new kits for all of their athletes to wear this summer – and out gay diver Tom Daley posed for the launch.
The launch of the new design on social media featured four-time Olympic medallist Tom Daley as well as sprinter Laviai Nielsen, skateboarder Lola Tambling, long jumper Jazmin Sawyers, gymnast Max Whitlock, taekwondo athlete Bianca Cook, and ParalympicsGB athlete Livvy Breen, among others.
Daley, 29, posed in two photos for the launch, one wearing blue tracksuit bottoms and a white T-shirt and another wearing a pair of blue swim trunks.
Team GB’s most high-profile LGBTQ+ star told BBC Sport: “The pride and passion I feel when representing my country on the biggest sporting stage is second to none, so to unveil a kit that encompasses what this moment means is incredibly special.”
“I cannot wait to proudly wear it in Paris this Summer, alongside my fellow teammates,” he added.
Daley, who won gold in Tokyo in 2021, also explained that many of the athletes, himself included, are involved in the designs of the kit – “especially for the sport-specific kit”.
“We’ve always been working on the fit and the material and to make sure they’re as comfy as possible so that we can perform at our best. For diving, you want to make sure everything’s in place and you don’t need anything going awry, especially when you’re spinning around. You hit the water at 35 miles an hour so you don’t need anything in weird places,” Daley said.
As with previous Team GB and ParalympicsGB attire, the kit features the colours of the Union Jack and “Great Britain” in capitals across the front. The manufacturer, Adidas, said that the athletes will wear a design that “celebrates the unique aspects of Great Britain, while encapsulating the fire of passion that burns within every athlete”.
Adidas also said that the typeface used for “Great Britain” was inspired by British athletes in 1924 and would have “a design element featuring tactile graphics so when athletes run their hands over it, they can feel the passion rising from the typeface” – but since most people are not TeamGB or ParalympicsGB athletes, we won’t be able to confirm or deny this.
The Union Jack is also featured on the left sleeve of all TeamGB and ParalympicsGB tops.
British Olympic Association chief executive Andy Anson told Sky News that the kit design would “put the traditionalists’ minds at rest”.
“We’re very patriotic and we’ve got the flag on every item of performance,” Anson added.
This focus on tradition and patriotism might not come as a surprise after a furore erupted around the multicoloured St George’s flag on the collar of the England men’s team’s football kit, leading to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and leader of the opposition Keir Starmer voicing their disapproval of the design, after people thought it looked like a “woke bisexual flag”.
However, the Football Association (FA) defended the design and said it was a tribute to the team that won the World Cup in 1966.
