Jack Laugher described the bronze medal he won in the 3m springboard final as redemption for the past two years, when poor form left him crying himself to sleep and on the verge of quitting diving.
The 26-year-old from Harrogate put up a strong performance in Tokyo but was unable to beat the Chinese pair of Xie Siyi and Wang Zongyuan, who took gold and silver with a brilliant series of dives.
Laugher won gold in the 3m springboard synchro with Chris Mears and silver in the individual event in Rio de Janeiro in 2016, but this bronze was nevertheless of immense value to him.
After finishing third he spoke of his embarrassment at his final dive at the World Championships two years ago, when a mistake on his back three-and-a-half somersaults dive caused him to slip from gold to bronze. He admitted that he had kept repeating the error and was afraid to attempt it until the European Championships in May.
“This means everything to me,” he said. “It has been the worst two years of my life. After the 2019 World Championships and failing to make myself a world champion, embarrassing myself with my final dive and the mistakes and the failure that I had there, it crushed me. It really, really crushed me.
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“It put me in a place that was just terrible: I cried myself to sleep quite a few times, had a lot of sleepless nights because I still make that same mistake.
“I had no confidence in myself, my anxiety was through the roof and I was physically scared to do the dive. It has been awful and I’ve hated it.
“I feel like this bronze medal is redemption from what has been such a bad couple of years. It might not be a gold medal but a medal around my neck is just the sense I’m back and I’m here and ready to keep going.”
Laugher said that his personal anguish had helped him identify with the challenges experienced by the American gymnast Simone Biles during these Olympics.
“I wanted to quit this year, quite a few times,” he said. “I was very close. I’ve always been good at the back reverse movements, that’s why I’ve finished on the back three-and-a-half all my life.
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“I can’t tell you how hard it is going to training every single day being scared of doing a skill because you don’t know where you are.
“It is so hard to throw yourself off a diving board while your heart is racing and you just don’t know where it is.
“I’ve made the same mistake over and over and I just thought I’ve had a long and prosperous career, maybe this is a sign I’ve lost it, I’ve lost my mojo and I don’t know what I’m doing any more.
“It’s interesting to see a very similar thing happen with Simone Biles. I have a lot of empathy with her situation because I can only imagine how hard it is being the best in the world by a long shot and struggling with something that she’s found so natural all her life.”
James Heatly, Great Britain’s other finalist, finished ninth. He was following in the footsteps of his grandfather, Sir Peter Heatly, who competed in diving at the 1948 and 1952 Olympics.
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The bronze medal caps an impressive turnaround for the resilient Laugher, who finished sixth at the European Championships in May, saying he was experiencing “stress, fear and panic” when competing. He underperformed badly alongside Dan Goodfellow in the Olympic final of the synchronised event, finishing seventh.
Laugher appeared to mouth, “I love you mum, I love you dad” into the cameras after his bronze was confirmed. He was in second place after two rounds, but was outscored by Wang on the third dive and never threatened to overhaul him thereafter, despite executing his fifth and sixth dives superbly.
Xie was a class apart and led after every single round.
Great Britain have won two diving medals at these Olympics — Tom Daley and Matty Lee won gold in the 10m synchro — and have two further chances, in both the men’s and women’s individual 10m platform.
Daley and Noah Williams will compete in the men’s event, while BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix and Lois Toulson, Laugher’s girlfriend, will dive in the women’s event.
