Britain's most decorated Olympic diver, Tom Daley, is shown in an Instagram retrospective

With his silver medal on Day 3 of the Paris 2024 Olympics, Tom Daley has made history for Team Great Britain. It is his fifth Olympic medal and marks him as the most decorated Olympic diver for Great Britain in history.

Three days before that monumental accomplishment, an Instagram reel on the Olympics account looked back with fondness and awe on his storied career.

It's hard to remember that the 30-year-old diving champion began his Olympics career in 2008 at the Beijing games, but there's no mistaking the intense expression before the dive and the wide grin afterwards. Daley was the youngest winner of the British Champions in the 10 meter diving event. He finished eighth in synchronized diving and seventh individually in Beijing. He followed the Olympics with second-place finishes in his first FINA Junior World Championships as he had been too young for that competition before.

The reel then follows his London 2012 bronze medal win, where he was granted the right to re-perform his 75-point dive due to the interference of camera flashes. His next dive scored 16 points higher and it was enough to put him on the podium with a literal jump for joy.

For Rio 2016, he was paired with Daniel Goodfellow, whom he first met in 2015. It was a great pairing, as they began accumulating wins with front 4 1/2 somersaults tucked dive. The highlight of the 2016 portion of the reel was dedicated to the dive that earned Goodfellow and Daley a bronze medal.

Heart of a winner

It is at this point that the caption for the video comes into context. Following this win in Brazil Daley nevertheless aimed higher:

"I will never give up on my dream of being an Olympic champion."

- Tom Daley

That dream came true in the next clip, where he and Matty Lee earned gold.

As reported by Reuters, he recounted what it has been like to return to the Olympics at his son's request:

"I'm so proud to have been able to decide to come back after two years of (retirement)...I think most of that was being able to set an example to my kids that if you have a dream and you work really hard, it doesn't mean that you're always going to be able to achieve exactly what you want to but it's about enjoying the process and doing what you can to show up, to be the best person that you can be."

- Tom Dale\

The reel not only shows Daley's great dedication over sixteen years, but his enduring sportsmanship. His new legacy as the most-decorated is a deserved one and sports fans look forward to what he will accomplish next.