Matty Lee urged to embrace 'golden boy' mantle

Matty Lee has been told to inherit Tom Daley's mantle as the golden boy of British diving with exactly 500 days to go until the Paris Olympic Games. Leeds star Lee, 25, catapulted himself into the spotlight by winning Olympic gold in Tokyo alongside Daley — but is also a European champion and went on to win gold and bronze at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham last summer.

Ad And ahead of the upcoming Olympic cycle for Paris 2024, Athens 2004 silver medallist Leon Taylor believes that Lee has all the tools required to emulate Daley's exploits in both the French capital and beyond. DivingMartin credits diving partner Birch following year of success21 HOURS AGO The 45-year-old, speaking ahead of the 500 day milestone, said: «Matty Lee had the pleasure and joy of getting to step up.

»When you get to stand next to someone as accomplished as Tom Daley as your synchro partner, metaphorically they're big shoes to fill and Matty stepped up and rose to the occasion. The achievements speak for themselves — Olympic gold medals in Tokyo.

«What's really pleasing for Matty, for now Tom's still involved in the sport — who knows whether he's retired or not — but Matty definitely is still. »He's had some tough times to deal with personally, which he's taken in his stride and found his way to still perform at the highest level.

«I'm really excited to see him perform well and looking in the build-up to Paris with new synchro partners doing well, it's a very exciting time for British diving at the moment, both in the men's and the women's events. »Being a BBC commentator it gives me an immense amount of joy to cover the action, as it did at the Europeans as well as the Commonwealths." SportsAid ambassador Taylor was speaking at RBC