Leeds diver Matty Lee to join Tom Daley for Tokyo 2020 Olympics bid

Lee has amassed a large haul of medals as both a junior and senior for the City Of Leeds Diving Club with the 20-year-old ending a season disturbed by injury when taking a European Championships silver medal alongside fellow Leeds star Lois Toulson in the 10m mixed synchro.

The Moortown-based diver also finished fifth in the Europeans 10m platform individual final in which he performed the backwards three and a half pike for the first time in competition.

That dive has now led to the Lee becoming the new 10m mixed synchro partner for Daley, who won bronze in the event alongside Daniel Goodfellow at Rio 2016.

Lee was devastated to miss out on selection for Rio and now hopes the forthcoming move to Dive London will help him reach new levels in his career.

Lee exclusively told the YEP: “Apart from Tom I am one of the top divers individually on 10m and I have now finally learned the back pike which is basically the dive I needed to do synchro with him.

“Tom wanted to do synchro with me, he told me that, and when you get given such an opportunity there is no point throwing it away.

“I will miss Leeds a lot, it was a hard decision, and I will obviously always be Leeds at heart. But it’s only for potentially two years in the run up to Tokyo and I am just going to try and hold on to it and embrace it all really.”

Lee had hoped to excel at this year’s Commonwealth Games only to pick up a triceps injury.

He had earlier enjoyed success in January’s 2018 British Championships, winning the 10m mixed synchro alongside Kyle Kothari.

“There’s always more to come and I am more ready for it than ever,” added Lee.

“I feel like I have got so much to prove and have finally been given a chance. The next two years are going to be exciting. I’ll be training synchro with Tom and obviously getting on with my individual career too.”