Will Brit Diving Prodigy Move to Lauderdale?

Tom Daley, the 14-year-old Olympic diver from the UK, has been bullied at school in his native Plymouth, a city on the country's western peninsula. As a result, his father says the family is considering moving... somewhere. Nowhere in that article does it say the bullying has been related to...

By Thomas Francis

April 24, 2009

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Tom Daley, the 14-year-old Olympic diver from the UK, has been bullied at school in his native Plymouth, a city on the country's western peninsula. As a result, his father says the family is considering moving... somewhere.

Nowhere in that article does it say the bullying has been related to sexual orientation, but even if Daley isn't gay, his sport tends to attract gay male athletes. Daley's is a complicated case of teen stardom. On one hand, he's a heartthrob to teen-aged girls (and, presumably, gay boys), a status that puts pressure on him to declare his sexual preference. But then, that's a horribly inappropriate question to ask of a 14-year-old, isn't it?

In any case, Fort Lauderdale is (post-Naugle) gay-friendly turf. It's also a diving mecca. And Daley is coming here in just two weeks to compete at the AT&T USA Diving Grand Prix at the Fort Lauderdale Aquatic Complex -- an event the Daleys think is important enough to keep the kid out of school so he can "focus." Isn't it possible that the family will take a few extra days here and shop around for one of those bargain-basement Florida homes?

Yes. The rumor starts now. After the jump, a video interview with Daley by a local paper in the U.K.

UPDATE: Just found this article, in which Daley mentions diving comes before a "girlfriend," so the rumors may be purely the stuff of gay admirers on internet messageboards.

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