Noah Williams, who won the silver medal in the men’s synchronized 10-meter platform event with synchro partner Tom Daley on Monday, paid tribute to his late diving coach during a press conference following the competition.
“Dave was, I mean, probably the nicest person I ever knew,” Williams said. “In terms of diving, he took me from like, I think I’d gone to two international competitions and he took me to my first Olympics so I genuinely wouldn’t be here without him.”
Dave Jenkins, who coached Williams to the Tokyo Olympics, died of sudden adult death syndrome in October 2021 at the age of 31.
“He taught me, kind of what Tom said, that diving is not the most important thing in the world and like taking that pressure off especially when I was like a teenager helped me develop like massively.”
Daley, for his part, talked about his happiness at getting back to competition form in just over a year and being able to compete at the Olympics in front of his family.
“15 months ago I was sitting on the sofa doing nothing and to then be able to get back into some kind of competition shape, I mean it’s something that I feel very proud to have been able to do and I think most of that was being able to set an example to my kids,” Daley said. “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.”
You can watch the full segment below.
Noah Williams & Tom Daley Post-Competition Press Conference