Diver Tom Daley is Plymouth’s most successful sportsman and one of Great Britain’s brightest hopes for an Olympic medal this summer. The London Games poster boy tells The Herald’s Chief Sports Writer Bill Richards of the sacrifices he will be making to achieve his ambition.

FEW ATHLETES thrive rather than buckle under the pressure of expectation in championship finals quite like Tom Daley.

Plymouth Diving's Daley has already been a World, Commonwealth and European champion from the top board – as well as entering the record books as one of the youngest British Olympians in the modern Games' era.

The only gold missing from that enviable list of achievements is an Olympic one, which Daley clearly is hoping to put right this summer in London.

It will be a tough ask for the Plymouth-born teenager who, for some time now, has been a poster boy for this year's London's Games, as well as a marketing dream for his home city.

Daley, not 18 until May, will face the challenge of among others the Chinese diving team who will be eager to dominate their own national sport, including the 10-metre platform event.

Divers keen to edge Daley off top place include Australian Matthew Mitcham and Germany's Sascha Klein, but it is China's Chen Ruolin and Qui Bo, who are perceived as the major threats.

The Chinese team for years have given their divers an added edge by isolating them from the distractions of every day life at diving camps until close to major events like the Olympics.

Daley has just returned from a similar programme with Team GB at a training camp in Australia for three weeks in December.

Along with fellow Olympian and Plymouth Diving products Tonia Couch and Sarah Barrow and coach Andy Banks, Daley spent 23 days at state-of-the-art aquatic facilities, first in Sydney and then in Adelaide.

Daley hailed the experience as successful and cannot wait to road test Plymouth's own brand new facility – the Life Centre – which is set to open in March.

"It (Life Centre) will be fantastic and having spent time at Adelaide and Sydney, I'm willing the time to move quickly so I can actually train in Plymouth's version," said A Level student Daley, who will leave Plymouth College at the end of January, to concentrate on preparing for the biggest Games of his life.

"Being away for so long – we didn't come back until Christmas Eve – gave us the opportunity to just concentrate on our training programme and perfecting our drills.

"There is a lot to be said for the programme and (Team GB programme director) Alexei (Evangulov) is able to see how we're all doing.

"I definitely feel the benefit of going out there to Australia even though there were times when I just wanted to be at home.

"But, it's all been in a really, good cause as there are a lot of important competitions coming up for us this year before the Olympics.

"I've already competed at one Olympics (Beijing 2008) and can't wait for the London Games to start.

"My ambition is still to compete in five Olympic Games, by which time I'll be 30.

"Now that's a scary thought."

Among the events in Daley's diving diary is the British Gas National Cup at the end of the month in Southend on Sea's fine aquatic centre.

Next up for Daley and his Team GB hopefuls is the FINA Diving World Cup at London's aquatic centre which will be a test event for the Games later in the year.

Daley will revisit his first brush with international glory at the European Championships in Eindhoven in May.

That landmark has not eluded Daley who said: "It's spooky – it's the same competition and the same venue where I won my first international gold medal before I then went to the Olympics in China that same year.

"I'm looking forward to going there again, even though both Tonia (Couch) and myself will be competing instead of celebrating our birthdays.

"But I'm OK with that."