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Tokyo 2020 Olympics: Coleen Nolan believes Tom Daley’s late father ‘will have been with him’ for gold medal win
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The Loose Women panel have expressed their pride in Tom Daley finally winning an Olympic gold medal, with Coleen Nolan saying that she believes the diver’s late father ‘will have been with him’.
On Monday, Tom, 27, and his diving partner Matty Lee, 23, won gold in the 10m synchronised platform diving event at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
This marked the first time that Tom had achieved a gold medal 13 years after his first Olympic Games in Beijing, with Tokyo being Matty’s Olympics debut.
On Tuesday’s edition of Loose Women, the presenters were in awe over the divers’ amazing feat, while also sharing their sadness over the fact that Tom’s dad, Robert Daley, was not around to witness his son’s achievement.
Robert died from a brain tumour in 2011 at the age of 40 in the same month that Tom turned 17 years old.
Speaking about Tom’s gold medal win, Coleen said: ‘It must have been… incredible. So proud of him, well done. But it must have been bittersweet for him ‘cause his dad was there from the beginning and to miss that moment, but you know, I’m sure if there is such a thing, his dad will have been there with him anyway.’
Gold at last as Tom Daley bites down on his Olympics medal (Picture: Clive Rose/Getty Images)
The TV personality added that it’s a ‘strange feeling’ when ‘you lose someone and something great happens to you and you think, “I never got to tell them”’.
Coleen said that Tom’s win might have felt ‘bittersweet’ for the diver (Picture: ITV)
The 56-year-old recalled how at the time of her parents’ deaths, she was experiencing issues in her first marriage and so she would have ‘loved’ for her parents to know that she was ok in the end.
Tom Daley’s dad, Robert, died 10 years ago (Picture: ITV)
Brenda Edwards, 52, whose parents died when she was four years old, said that she remembered ‘two things’ about her parents – music and the smell of a Chinese takeaway they would get every couple of weeks, stating: ‘I’ve searched it out and I’ve got both things in my life.’
After winning gold at the Olympics, Tom paid tribute to his dad, saying: ‘He never saw me win an Olympic medal, get married, have a child, teach me to drive, have a pint down the pub.’
The diver said that his ‘journey started in Plymouth, back in 2001’, when he ‘pestered’ his father to take him to a diving pool after watching divers ‘doing somersaults on the board’.
More: Olympics
‘I know he would have been extremely proud how I have become Olympic champion. It was always our dream growing up,’ he said.
‘He took me to every training session, every competition, he was always there.’
Loose Women airs weekdays at 12.30pm on ITV.
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