A 13-year-old boy will become the youngest British male Olympian to date after being selected to compete in the diving event at the Games in Beijing.

Four years ago Tom Daley sat on a poolside in Plymouth and cried because he didn’t want to try a reverse dive. Yesterday, after finishing seventh at a World Cup event in the Chinese capital, the boy, who admits that he is still terrified on the 10m high-diving board, secured his place at the summer Olympics.

“Every time I go up there I get scared but it gets easier,” he said. “It’s thrilling, like being on a rollercoaster. It’s the ultimate ride.”

Tom, who is 5ft 2in and 7st 7lb, will be 14 years and 80 days old when the Games begin. The previous youngest male competitor was Fred Hodges, who was 15 years and 94 days when he competed as a diver at the 1936 Berlin Games.

Being selected is reward for the punishing 30-hour training schedule that Tom fits in around his school week. Since entering his first national competition in 2004 he often leaves home at 6.40am to get to the Plymouth Diving Club. He practises somersaults and twists in a harness on land before trying them out in the pool, hitting the water at 30mph.

Andy Banks, who trains Tom, said: “He basically just walked in off the street. In 2003 I saw him crying on the poolside and I thought: this kid will not make it. But he mastered his fear. He just has so much natural ability. He knows where he is in the air.”

Tom’s father, Robert Daley, 37, has given up his job making electrical machinery to take his son to diving competitions around the country. It was a task made more difficult when Mr Daley was found to have a brain tumour. He hid the news from his son initially by telling him that he had shaved his head for charity instead of for an operation.

“I knew if I made a big deal of it, it might affect him,” Mr Daley said.

Debbie Daley, Tom’s mother, said that throughout his father’s illness Tom had never missed training. “He was doing it for his dad,” she said.

In the final of the individual men’s 10m platform event yesterday Tom performed six dives in two hours. To qualify for Olympic preselection he had to come in the top eight. By dive number five he was placed tenth. But on the last and most complex attempt Tom achieved the second-highest score in the competition.

“I was well nervous, but I knew when I hit the water it was OK. I came out and heard everyone cheering,” Tom said.

The 10m platform event includes one dive where the competitor has to begin on his hands. “Doing a hand-stand from 10m up is going to scare anyone,” Tom said. “But I think I’ve cracked it.”

The result marks a remarkable few months for Tom. On Friday he won a bronze medal in the 10m synchro dive with Blake Aldridge, his partner. In January he became the British No 1, a month after he was awarded BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year.

Tom, whose main competition for a medal will come from the German and Chinese divers, said: “I do miss my friends but it’s something I have to sacrifice to be a top diver.”

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