LEON TAYLOR

Since his retirement from competition, Olympic medallist Leon Taylor has been helping athletes to develop their skills beyond their sporting careers

During his career, Leon Taylor won medals at all major international diving events – culminating in a silver medal at the 10m synchro event at the Athens Olympics. Since his retirement from elite sport, Taylor has become involved in a portfolio of projects. He now speaks about mental wellness, supports the SportsAid charity, teaches yoga and commentates for the BBC – including at this year’s Paris 2024 Olympics. Taylor also spearheads the Beyond Gold campaign, which urges athletes to plan for their lives after sport. Launched by Active IQ, an awarding organization for the active leisure sector – the campaign addresses a common oversight among elite competitors. It urges athletes to develop career skills alongside their athletic ambitions. Taylor himself completed a Higher National Certificate in Business and Finance during the later stages of his diving career and earned his Active IQ Level 2 Strength Training and Level 3 PT qualification. WellNation spoke to Taylor about his career and his post-career.

How did you first get into diving?

My parents have told me that I drove them up the wall with my energy! They had no idea what to do with me, so they decided to try and tire me out through physical activity. Hence I ended up doing every sport that you could imagine.

I started swimming when I was still in my nappies and also went to mother and baby gymnastics, which quickly turned into tumble tots and thinks like that. Combining those two, I started diving just before my ninth birthday. I found that it was a sport that was a perfect mix for me. As an added plus, it required concentration too, because there’s an element of jeopardy and danger involved.

I was no good on a football field waiting for the ball to be passed to me. I’d lose concentration, but standing on your tiptoes on the end of a board seemed to be something I was well suited to.

When did you first realise you had the potential to become an elite athlete? I took part in sport because I loved it. But like all children who do a sport, I had dreams – in my case, of going to the Olympic Games. I remember watching the Olympic Games when I was six. I didn’t really understand what it took, but I just knew that I had this passion and drive.

The moment I realised I might have a chance must have been when I was a teenager. When I was 14, I was the best in the country for my age. I was starting to compete at the senior level and there were only a few people better than me in the country.

By the time I was 16, I was the best in the country – full stop. That was the opportunity then to think that, well, the Olympic Games are two years away. Could I make the team? I ended qualifying for the Commonwealth Games, the World Championships, the European Championships and then, ultimately, the Atlanta Olympics in 1996.

How was it to win an Olympic silver medal? The experience of going to the Olympics for me was three fold. The first time I qualified, I was 18 and still doing my A-levels. I wasn’t really expected to make the team so early and I was surrounded by my heroes of track and field and it kind of blew me away with its magnitude.

The second Olympic Games, in Sydney, I was pretty focused. In fact, I was overly focused. I was going in solely to win a medal and we ended up placing fourth. So there was the heartbreak involved with coming so close to achieving a dream.

So it was a case of third time’s a charm for me – I got it right in Athens in 2004. I went in not paying attention to only winning a medal, desiring it, but focusing on performance. I was concentrating on enjoying every moment because I knew that I was on borrowed time. As an elite athlete, your career only lasts a short period of time. Because I was so focused on enjoying the moment –which I knew might be my last Games – I stood on the podium in P2 and won the first Olympic medal for British diving in 44 years.

So it ended up being a huge moment not just for me personally, but for the entire Team GB and the sport of diving in this country.

You planned to make it to Beijing 2008, but pulled out due to a back injury – and then retired? Yes. The medics told me my body was worn out. We looked at all the options but there was nothing I could do.

When you come to the end of your career, there are usually one of two things at play. Either your body has had enough and you can’t do it, or your mind has had enough and the body/mind connection isn’t working. Luckily for me, it was the former. After four reconstructive shoulder surgeries on the same shoulder – and a worn out disc in my lower back which put me in chronic pain for the last six years of my career – the medical team showed me the red card.

In some ways, when I realised that that was it, it was liberating – because I was suddenly not under the pressure and expectation that I was putting myself under. But it was also incredibly scary, because then it’s like: ‘What am I going to do now?’

After winning silver at Athens and then being unable to compete, I had a period of depression and mental health issues. It made me realise that I was underprepared for retirement.

Luckily, I was then able to climb through that period and learn from it. So when I did make the decision to step away in 2008, I was no longer thinking, ‘oh, what do I do?’. It was more the case of ‘I’ve got this’.

The process included studying for a qualification, while you were still hoping to make it to Beijing 2008? Yes, I think during my career there were inflection points. There were points where I put myself in unnecessary positions where I was just focused on my sport. I placed too much pressure on myself to perform.

As a result, I had to step back from my undergraduate studies because I couldn’t balance them with my sports career. But as my career progressed, I realised the importance of doing other things to “balance the scorecard”.

I started to search out qualifications and decided to do a Strength & Conditioning Level 2 qualifi cation and PT Level 3 qualifi cation with Active IQ. It was partly because being fi t was important to me and I knew my way around the weights room – I knew about fitness training, about coaching and also how to inspire people.

Having options or a safety net can help with what can be a very destabilising transition when you’re moving away from elite sport

So while it was something I understood, I also knew the importance of professional qualifications. With my background, I realised that I could potentially work in some interesting places, but I would also need to be competent at what I’m doing. Just because I knew how to lift weights, didn’t mean I could immediately teach other people how to do it safely.

How important is it for elite athletes to have a back up plan for their post-career? When you’re looking at your life after sport, did I have a plan initially? No. I was, you know, in a space where I was so focused on Olympic qualification and four year cycles that I was, I guess, a little bit deluded. I thought I was going to dive forever. It wasn’t until that serious injury in 2001 that I suddenly realised that I was massively under equipped for life after sport, and then I started to make some changes.

It’s important for athletes to find out what they are interested in doing. It isn’t always an easy thing.

Because for many, all they have done is sport. For me, it was a case of ‘what could I do’? Personally, I wanted to branch out into the fitness industry, into broadcasting and into different areas.

One of the biggest things I didn’t realise that was in store for me was that, because of my injuries, I was going to be in pain for the rest of my life, unless I did something. One of the interventions the medical team suggested was to practise yoga, in order to rebalance my ‘unbalanced body’ and to tackle the chronic pain in my lower back. So within six months of retiring, I was doing yoga pretty much every day in a heated room – and it transformed my body, my mental health, my emotional health.

So the PT qualifi cation that I’ve had and not really utilised fully was my safety net, because I knew that I could go, not quite anywhere in the world, but it would open doors. I had the qualifi cation.

For athletes, I think it’s really important that they put some time and effort into at least thinking or planning or creating some options as to where they’re going to focus their attention if it all stops. Having plans in place, having irons in fires and having options or a safety net can help with what can be a very destabilising transition when you’re moving away from elite sport.

Why do you think the Beyond Gold campaign is so important and what do you hope the impact could be? Athletes can sometimes fi nd themselves in a tricky situation when things change drastically. So it’s almost getting the conversation started – what do you enjoy? What could be options for you? It’s important for athletes to take action in the ‘now’, because they can’t just magic a qualifi cation at the end of their careers. Recognised qualifi cations are important. Doing a five-minute online course won’t offer the correct qualifi cations or skills, nor open the doors that they need opened to have a career after elite sport. To find more about the Beyond Gold campaign, please visit: [www.activeiq.co.uk/beyondgold](https://www.activeiq.co.uk/beyondgold)