This is the BBC.

Hello, I'm Lauren LeVern and this is the Desert Island Disks podcast.

Every week I ask my guests to choose the eight tracks, book and luxury they'd want to take with them if they were cast away to a desert island.

This is an extended version of the original Radio 4 broadcast and for right reasons the music is shorter than the original broadcast.

I hope you enjoy listening.

At just 24 my guest today is one of our younger castaways. However his age belies his experience. He is already amassed more than one lifetime's worth of achievements.

And who better than a diver to fit a lot into a short space of time? Anyone who can squeeze three and a half summer salts plus a twist into the 1.9 seconds between leaving the 10 meter board and hitting the water below at over 30 miles per hour knows how to make the most of every moment.

Tom Daly first learned to dive at seven by ten. He was a prodigy the youngest ever under 18 UK champion at 14. He represented Britain at the Beijing Olympics 10 years later.

He is a two time world champion and also has four Commonwealth golds and two Olympic bronze medals in his trophy cabinet.

Frequently described as mature he's had to do his growing up in public dealing with bullies at school losing his beloved dad Rob just a year before the London 2012 Olympics.

His relationship with his husband Lance and the arrival of their son Robbie Ray have all been front page news and with the Tokyo Olympics in 2020 next on the horizon the scrutiny and expectation aren't letting up anytime soon.

So welcome Tom.

Thank you. I want to start at the edge of the 10 meter board now we all have those edge of the diving board moments in life but for most of us of course they are metaphorical the moment before we make some kind of figurative leap.

I want you to talk me through your literal version what's it like standing up there staring down at that little sparkling blue square of water.

It is terrifying and I remember the first time that I went up on to the 10 meter platform and I was about eight years old and I felt like I literally had to crawl on my hands and knees to the edge because it feels like when you're that high up it feels like the diving board narrows and narrows and narrows almost like you're on a balancing beam that you could fall off at any moment.

I figured that getting my center of gravity as low as possible to the diving ball was going to be the safest bet for me but when you stand up there there's this overwhelming feeling of adrenaline and all of your senses are completely heightened and you become so hyper vigilant to everything that's going on around you the light the noises.

It's a really weird almost out of body experience to stand up there because if you actually think about what you're doing no sane minded human with Jumbo we would actually do it so you have to really be in the moment and focus on process.

And you dive with your eyes open with your fan fascinating does everyone is that unusual?

So just like a ballet dancer might you know pirouette and spot a wall as they're spinning we do exactly the same thing but with the water so if we don't know which ways up and where we are in the air there's no chance really of landing vertical in the water so yeah you have to learn to dive with your eyes open and shut them just before you hit the water so you don't get an eye full of water.

And what about landing I mean I know it obviously can hurt when it goes wrong but what about when it goes right?

It hurts when it goes wrong and when it goes right if I'm being completely honest obviously it hurts a lot more if it goes wrong I've broken ribs coughed up blood you know instant bruising some people even split skin when they hit the water spinning at the right speed and at the wrong angle whereas when you hit the water vertical all of the pressure and all of the impacts goes from your the palm of your hands through to your shoulders through your triceps through your back and sometimes when you hit the water and you have the cleanest eventries when you have that rip edge.

And you have that rip entry and all this flash gets sucked under that impact goes like pretty pretty hard three or shoulders in your spine so after a while it's definitely a young man's spot.

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