The day Olympic sensation Tom Daley swam with sharks

When you are 14 and have dived at the Olympics in between your school homework, a date with three sharks should not prove too challenging!

Emily, Enzo and Howardine seemed friendly enough - from my vantage point outside the sand sharks’ tank at the National Aquarium in Plymouth.

More than 1,000 fish were there to keep them company, with a safety team of two scuba divers and a free diver overhead on hand to protect Tom Daley. Just in case.



We still had a brief scare as one shark eluded the safety divers and swam directly at Tom, passing within inches of the diving star of Beijing as he was treading water.

Tom’s father Rob could not bear to look. To shrieks from the watching crowd, Tom - one of Sportsmail’s Magnificent Seven we are tracking to London 2012 - dived again, blissfully unaware of the drama.



What is it they say about working with animals?

Sand sharks can eat lobsters, crab and squid .... but not Olympians, apparently. There have been no records of attacks by sand sharks, or so it says on the internet.



As Tom reached my depth to pose for his picture, the sharks became shy and retreated to the back of the aquarium.

It meant some photo-editing was required to recapture the moment a courageous young boy dared swim in the same tank as thousands of sea bream and three 12-foot sharks.

The Big Picture: Shire genius with Olympic Bronze medallist Louis Smith

The 19-year-old gymnast was only taking what we consider a modern sport back to its origins in the armies of ancient Greece and Rome, when the soldiers would practise manoeuvres on an artificial horse as part of their training.


This method of honing the legions’ skills was noted by fifth century Roman writer Vegetius. Some 1,200 years later, a military drill instructor developed Vegetius’ description into the art of equestrian acrobatics. It evolved further, particularly in 19th

century Berlin, and became the Olympic apparatus we now know as the pommel horse.

Louis had to be brave to attempt a part of his routine on Scott. This magnificent creature, from Waldburg Shires, based at the Shire Horse Society within Sacrewell Farm and Country Centre near Peterborough, stands 18.2 hands high, which is
more than six feet — some two feet higher than the 115cm stipulated for Olympic
competition.

Louis benefits from National Lottery funding thanks to Lottery players who raise £25million a week for good causes.