TOM DALEY may be the poster boy of London 2012, but North Yorkshire diver Jack Laugher is another teenager aiming to make a splash at the Olympics.
While 18-year-old Daley can boast Commonwealth and European gold medals in his ten-metre platform events, Laugher is already one up on his Great Britain team-mate.
The Harrogate-born 17-year-old became our first-ever world junior champion as he claimed gold in the one-metre and three-metre competitions in Arizona in 2010.
The Ripon Grammar School pupil had already achieved that double in the European Junior Championships that year.
Last year, Laugher was eighth in the three-metre at the senior World Championships, following that up with a sixth place finish at this year’s European Championships.
However, London 2012 is the big one for Laugher and he declared: “It will be the best experience of my life.
“The Olympics is such a big competition, it’s the biggest competition in any athlete’s life, really.
“It is the pinnacle and I’ve reached it at a really young age and I’m very happy about that.
“I can’t think of anything better than competing in the Olympics in my home country.”
While Laugher is taking the plunge in the diving pool, also in the Aquatics Centre swimmers Jo Jackson and Lizzie Simmonds will be hoping to shine.
Northallerton-born Jackson, 25, won bronze in the 400 metres freestyle in Beijing and is tackling the same discipline in London, qualifying after banishing a run of illness and injury.
Simmonds, born in Beverley, is competing in her second Games, having finished sixth in the 200 metre backstroke in Beijing and tenth in the 100 metres.
The 21-year-old lines-up in only the 200 metres in London – an event in which she won gold in the 2010 European Championships – having failed to qualify for the 100 metres.
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