At 14, Tom Daley may be the baby of the Great Britain team here, but his image as the tot on the tower is evaporating before our very eyes. Just 5ft 2in in March, when he became the youngest European diving champion in history, the schoolboy had grown an inch by June. As he sauntered on to the boards for practice yesterday, it was obvious that he had shot up again.

Daley's official British Olympic Association biography lists him as standing 1.56 metres (5ft 1in) tall, while his synchronised ten-metre diving partner, Blake Aldridge, who was 22 on Monday, stands 1.67 metres (5ft 6in).

The difference in height between the team-mates is closing fast. A member of the Britain team said: “Yes, he's about 1.63 metres [5ft 4in] now - and growing. It's what teenagers do.” They also attract a small army of fans and media. Daley was inundated with requests for autographs from a cluster of Chinese schoolchildren and volunteers at the pool yesterday. He duly delivered, smiling and chatting to a gaggle of giggling girls.

The Plymouth schoolboy's changing stature, in size and potential, requires constant adjustment to his training programme, which is steered by Andy Banks, his personal coach, and Chen Wen, the Britain head coach. Tiny divers, such as Fu Mingxia, of China, who was 14 when she became Olympic champion in 1992, can execute twists, turns and pikes at a speed that cannot be achieved by larger athletes.

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Leon Taylor, silver medal-winner in the synchronised diving for Britain in 2004 and an adviser to Daley, said: “Tom is lucky in that he is growing fast but at a steady rate. The prime example of how size can affect you is Alex Despatie [of Canada]. At 14, he was Commonwealth champion in 1998, then he grew a lot and in 1999 really struggled to do anything. By 2000 he was just catching up with himself and got an Olympic medal.

“It's a job for the coach and the physiotherapists. The joints are affected and so is strength because you have to move a bigger muscle mass. The whole dynamic of the dive and flight can change. So far, Tom has absorbed his growth with growth in his ability. He's also filling out. His body is not a child's body now. His musculature is keeping pace with his gain in height.”