If the camera does not lie, then Tom Daley is the public face of the British Olympic team. It was the young diver who was picked out for the lingering close-up in the entrance of the British team at the opening ceremony, a sure sign that the story of the 14-year-old Plymouth schoolboy has a global reach.

Daley’s journey through these Olympics has already been well documented. He has met Rafael Nadal, the Wimbledon champion, stood shoulder to waist with Kobe Bryant and LeBron James of the US basketball team in the holding room before their respective press conferences and enjoyed unrestricted access to the games and television room in the Olympic village.

“He’s a kid in the chocolate factory,” says Steve Foley, the performance director of the GB diving squad. “He’s having a ball and he’s not overawed at all. That’s the great thing about the Olympics. You meet all sorts of people. Tom looked the size of the basketball next to Kobe Bryant and LeBron James, but these are great experiences for him and he’s grabbing them all.

“Some people freeze in that environment, but he doesn’t. The more he absorbs – and he’s a smart, intelligent boy – the better off he will be in the long term.”

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Now comes the hard part, matching himself against a formidable Chinese team and their billion-strong fan club in a sport the hosts regard as their property. “There are no preliminary rounds now,” says Leon Taylor, silver medallist in the synchronised diving in Athens and Daley’s former diving partner. “You’ve got to get it right first up in front of 18,000 people and five Olympic rings.”

Daley, the European champion, will begin his remarkable quest for an Olympic medal in the synchronised diving competition tomorrow. Alongside him will be Blake Aldridge, a former junior world champion, the Daley of his day, whose journey has involved rather more twists and turns, not all of them from the diving platform. “Tom’s come into the sport and been a wonder kid,” Aldridge said. “It’s happened straight away for him. I’ve been in the sport for 21 years and this is my first Olympics. It’s been years and years of hard work, disappointment and injury. I set myself a goal five years ago that I would never give up the sport until I’d been at the Olympic Games, but there have been hundreds of days when I wanted to throw in the towel. It’s those days that really put into perspective what it means when you win an important medal or qualify for the Games.”

There is no bitterness in the statement, just an understanding of sport’s realities. After a difficult initial period, Aldridge, at 26 nearly twice Daley’s age, has learned to bridge the generation gap, to tolerate the teenager’s mess and the bleeping of his computer games so that both now talk of the chemistry that makes their unlikely pairing work. “Tom has that instinctive attitude of young people,” says Aldridge. “He is not frightened of being beaten. He has no doubt in his mind. Over the years, with all the injuries I’ve had, doubt has crept in, but not with him, not yet.”

In return, Daley appreciates Aldridge’s experience and his calmness under pressure. Worse things have happened in Aldridge’s life than losing. Last year, his regular diving partner, Gavin Brown, was killed by a hit-and-run driver. His initial instinct was to give up, there and then. He had already recovered from two retinal detachments, the result of a wipe-out – eyes open as he hit the water at 30mph – from back and wrist injuries and the disappointment of twice failing to make the Olympics. But when Taylor, Daley’s old partner, retired through injury, Aldridge found a new focus for his sporting ambition in his partnership with Daley. Nothing can bring back his old friend, but a medal would certainly be for the three of them.

Diving, an unheralded and underfunded sport for the past decade, is suddenly fashionable with Plymouth’s famous son its figurehead. “Tom is so self-assured, he’s phenomenal that way,” says Foley. “You listen to him and it’s natural and that’s what makes Tom and the great ones so great. They just seem to be born with it.

“When he came into the senior teams we treated him like a senior who was there to dive and he enjoyed being treated like an adult. He knows what he’s got to do to dive well. If that means staying up late playing games, that’s fine. Tom knows what he wants to do and he’s a lot more relaxed.

“The beauty of Tom is that he is so focused on his diving. He’s here to learn but we’re fully aware that if he and Blake dive really well, they are in with a chance. It’s a hot event, but it’s the one China will be worried about not winning. It’s going to be one heck of an event.”

If Foley has his calculations right, success in the synchro will spill over into the individual event, which begins on Friday. Daley has to finish in the top 12 to progress to the final on Saturday.

“Rafael Nadal probably thought Tom was a ball boy,” says Foley. “But I wouldn’t be surprised if by the end of these Olympics he knows who he is.”