Worldwide Sports News

The diver stepped into the spotlight as a small, smiley youngster and, after 13 tumultuous years, he heads to Tokyo for his fourth Olympics

Tom Daley was only 13 the first time I interviewed him in April 2008. “He is small and smiley,” I wrote, “with flashing braces on his teeth and an engaging way of setting you at ease within minutes of meeting him. He likes playing on the Wii far more than football and, one day, he wouldn’t mind becoming a Blue Peter presenter. In the meantime Daley is the new European diving champion who takes his lucky monkey with him wherever he competes around the world.”

Daley was preparing for his first Olympic Games amid giddy national interest. Thirteen years later, he and his husband are proud parents and Daley is about to compete in his fourth Olympics. He has won two medals, lost a few more, while suffering doubt and grief alongside his emergence as one of the few British sportsmen to have come out publicly.

Related: Tom Daley: ‘I'm only recognised when strangers think of me in my pants'

• Jones, 28, suffers shock first-round defeat in taekwondo
• Briton still has medal lifeline by chance of bronze in repechage

The Refugee Team athlete Kimia Alizadeh caused a stunning shock on the second morning of the Tokyo Games, knocking out Great Britain’s double Olympic taekwondo champion Jade Jones in the first round at Makurahi Hall.

Alizadeh, who became the first Iranian woman to win an Olympic medal when she took bronze at Rio 2016 behind Jones, subsequently left her homeland to train in Germany, a decision which led to a period of inactivity that meant she was not seeded in the women’s -57kg category.

Related: Sign up for the Tokyo 2020 daily briefing: the best of the Olympics and Paralympics

• Hometown favourite wins skateboarding men’s street gold
• Brazil’s Hoefler takes silver while USA’s Eaton earns bronze
• Nyjah Houston ends with four straight falls to take seventh
• Olympic men’s street skateboarding final – as it happened

Japan’s Yuto Horigome has won the first ever skateboarding competition at the Olympic Games, taking gold in men’s street in the city where he learned to skate as a kid and where his sport is often frowned upon.

Related: Olympic men’s street skateboarding: Japan’s Yuto Horigome takes gold – as it happened

NBC’s broadcast attracts 17 million viewers, a drop of 37% from 2016, when 26.5 million watched Rio opener

• Follow the latest Olympics coverage – live

NBC’s broadcast of the Tokyo Olympic Games opening ceremony drew 16.7 million viewers, the smallest US television audience for the event in 33 years, according to preliminary data.

Friday’s audience reflects a steep drop, despite difficult comparisons with previous opening ceremonies, when viewers had fewer streaming options.

Related: Olympic fever finally hits Japan on first day of competition at Tokyo 2020