It is dive roulette, a moment simply to perform, to dive like nobody’s watching – except millions of people are, and every session, every break, every hand along the away is suddenly narrowing to this point.ĭaley’s and Lee’s second dive was a back one-and-a-half somersault with a half twist. After which the dives just kept coming, an unceasing carousel without time to breathe or think. Daley and Lee were second in the first round. Cao and Chen were always the favourites here, the alpha dogs of this pool, with a sense of swagger and flash even in their walk to the board. The plan had been to start solidly, to prevent China opening a commanding lead. There were yelps and cheers as they hit the water, the men disappearing with the familiar thunk of a successful entry. Tom Daley and Matty Lee with their gold medals after a day of high drama at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre. It may not sound it, but the board looked like a lonely ledge as Daley and Lee paused before the opening round, alone in all that air, ready for the first leap into a version of the future they had planned together for the past three years. The first thing to note about the 10-metre platform is that 10 metres is very high. They had applied pressure from their opening dive, turning their midway spot in the rota – China dived last – to their advantage. Daley and Lee were ruthless in response, retaining top spot despite a furious counterattack. There were damp eyes above Daley’s mask as he stood with Lee on the podium to listen to the national anthem, both men looking drained but uncontainably happy.Īll it took was one moment of weakness in a relentless surge of six back-to-back high-wire dives, as the Chinese pair blinked at the midpoint. For Daley the result means that 14 years, four Games and all manner of twists, turns and pikes on from his emergence as dive-boy curiosity, a prodigy of the UK Sport machine, he finally has gold to go with two bronzes. Or, it could be looking at new cutting-edge methods to analyze objects, which was what my Master's thesis was about using the Chandra X-ray Observatory.Lee is diving in his first Games. This could be trying to understand new observations of a complicated type of star, which I am now doing in my PhD thesis. I enjoy working on my PhD at the University of Cambridge, England, because I love being at the forefront of research and the challenge of understanding things that no one has been able to interpret before. We were all trying to understand the higher-energy Universe as a whole. My advisor was inspirational and it was great to be part of such a friendly community where everyone was trying to piece together their own part of the puzzle. I loved my research on the biggest gravitationally-bound objects in the Universe - galaxy clusters - and enjoyed learning how the Universe was pushing our understanding to the limit in all areas from early times to the present day. Consequently, I was able to complete my Master's research thesis abroad at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass., in the United States. While I was studying for my undergraduate degree at the University of Southampton, England, I was one of the top students in my year. I find astronomy very rewarding as it provides small clues, which are beginning to be pieced together and help us answer this question and, ultimately, to understand the Universe we live in. The biggest question in life - "How did we get here?" - has always intrigued me. I have always had a very questioning mind and liked to learn how the physical processes and objects we see around us can be explained so simply by mathematics. Stacie took some time from her busy schedule to discuss her academic and career path thus far. She also took a break this past summer to compete in the 10-meter diving platform competition for Great Britain at the 2012 Olympic Games in London. student in astrophysics at Institute of Astronomy at the University of Cambridge, England.