Leon Taylor

Last updated

Leon Taylor
Leon-Taylor-presenting-June-2019.jpg
Leon Taylor talks to a group about mental wellness
Personal information
Full nameLeon Taylor
Born (1977-11-02) 2 November 1977 (age 46)
Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England
Height178 cm (5 ft 10 in)
Sport
CountryGreat Britain
Event(s)10 m platform,
10 m synchro
Partner Peter Waterfield
Retired29 May 2008
Medal record
Men's diving
Olympic Games
Representing Flag of the United Kingdom.svg  Great Britain
Silver medal icon (S initial).svg 2004 Athens 10 m synchro
World Championships
Representing Flag of the United Kingdom.svg  Great Britain
Bronze medal icon (B initial).svg 2005 Montreal 10 m synchro
Commonwealth Games
Representing Flag of England.svg  England
Silver medal icon (S initial).svg 2002 Manchester 10 m platform
Bronze medal icon (B initial).svg 1998 Kuala Lumpur 10 m platform
European Aquatics Championships
Representing Flag of the United Kingdom.svg  Great Britain
Bronze medal icon (B initial).svg 1999 Istanbul 10 m synchro
Bronze medal icon (B initial).svg 2000 Helsinki 10 m synchro

Leon Taylor (born 2 November 1977) is a former British competitive diver. During his diving career he won medals at all major international events including a silver at the Athens Olympics. Following his retirement from competition, Taylor transitioned to a portfolio of projects. He now speaks about mental wellness, [1] supports the SportsAid charity, [2] teaches yoga and mental wellness, [3] works for an executive performance business [4] and commentates for the BBC.

Contents

Background

Taylor was born and educated in Cheltenham where he attended Bournside School. [5] He was hyperactive as a child and his parents were advised to channel his energies and enthusiasm into sport. He was a swimmer and gymnast from the age of two and took up competitive diving when he was eight. By the age of 11 he was a national champion. He trained at Cheltenham Leisure Centre under Dave Turner and then Ian Barr until 1996.

Diving career

Taylor represented Great Britain at three Summer Olympic Games [6] and was a member of the Great Britain team for 16 years winning medals at all major international championships. [7] In the diving events at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, he won the Silver medal in the men's synchronised 10-metre platform, with partner Peter Waterfield. It was Britain's first Olympic diving medal since Brian Phelps in 1960. He had come fourth in the same competition in the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney.

Other achievements include Silver in the men's 10 m platform at the 2002 Commonwealth Games (he had won Bronze in 1998), and Bronze in the 10 m synchro at the 1999 European Aquatics Championships. At a national level, Taylor held both the 10 m platform and 10 m synchro titles from 1994 to 2006. [7]

He trained with other members of the British team in the Ponds Forge swimming complex in Sheffield.

In 1998 Leon invented the 5255b; a back 2.5 somersaults, 2.5 twists [8] [9] which at the time was the World's most difficult dive with a tariff of 3.8. Following a rule change in 2009, the dive now carries a tariff of 3.6. [10]

Retirement and post-competitive career

Although Taylor had been planning to compete at the 2008 Summer Olympics, he announced his retirement from competition in May of that year following a number of injuries. [11]

Between 2006 – 2008, he completed an HNC (Higher National Certificate) in Business and Finance from Sheffield Hallam University. [12]

Taylor now works as a public speaker, presenter, conference host, BBC commentator and mentor to members of the British team. [13]

In 2010 Taylor published a book on the subject of mentoring: [14] MENTOR - The most important role you were never trained for. This work built on his experience of mentoring many athletes, most notably Olympic medalist Tom Daley. [15]

In January 2013, Taylor was named as a judge on the ITV celebrity diving show Splash! . He returned to judge on the show in its second series, airing in 2014. [16] Taylor had planned, and booked, a once-in-a-lifetime trip to New Zealand with his girlfriend when 'Splash' came about instead. [17]

In 2016 Taylor was part of the BBC commentary team for the diving events at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio and for the 2017 World Aquatics Championships.

In 2018, Taylor spoke at the TEDx Clapham event on the subject of managing prolonged mental stress with the aid of physical movement. [18] He has followed this with a series of videos on the subject of stress. [19]

In March 2020, Taylor led a series of exercise routines for the Headspace mobile app. [20]

Taylor's sporting career became the basis of a children's story novel, Leon's Magic Mantra, authored by Sarah Griffiths, who wrote it in collaboration with Taylor by video call during the Covid pandemic. It was launched in June 2022. [21]

Bibliography

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References

  1. ↑ "How to manage your mental health". YouTube .
  2. ↑ "SportsAid Ambassadors". SportsAid.
  3. ↑ "About Move Mode". Headspace.
  4. ↑ "Adeki Performance".
  5. ↑ "Cheltenham diving star Leon Taylor has lent his support to teenage prodigy Tom Daley. | Gloucester Citizen". Thisisgloucestershire.co.uk. 29 April 2009. Archived from the original on 8 February 2013. Retrieved 29 July 2014.
  6. ↑ "Leon Taylor". Olympedia. Retrieved 23 May 2020.
  7. 1 2 "Sporting achievements of Olympic medallist Leon Taylor". Leontaylor.co.uk. Retrieved 29 July 2014.
  8. ↑ "Q&A with Leon Taylor". LloydsTSB. Archived from the original on 20 September 2016. Retrieved 3 January 2013.
  9. ↑ "The fundamentals of diving". British Swimming.
  10. ↑ "FINA Table of Degree of Difficulty" (PDF). Fina.org. Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 September 2015. Retrieved 29 July 2014.
  11. ↑ Cheese, Caroline (29 May 2008). "Diver Taylor announces retirement". BBC Sport. BBC. Retrieved 29 May 2008.
  12. ↑ "Notable alumni". shu.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 13 February 2012. Retrieved 15 January 2013.
  13. ↑ "About Leon" . Retrieved 5 September 2008.
  14. ↑ "Mentor – The Book". Leon Taylor. Archived from the original on 23 July 2012.
  15. ↑ "Tom Daley says Leon Taylor was his idol as a young diver". 18 April 2020.
  16. ↑ "Who will join Tom Daley on the high board? Splash! celebrity contestants announced". The Independent. London. 2 January 2013.
  17. ↑ "Q & A with SPLASH! Judge and Olympic diver Leon Taylor". 21 February 2013.
  18. ↑ "Leon Taylor - How to manage your mental health". TEDx.
  19. ↑ "How to deal with stress series". Youtube.
  20. ↑ "Headspace launch Move Mode with Leon Taylor". Forbes. 5 March 2020.
  21. ↑ "Olympian dives in with stories to tell in children's book". Shropshire Star. 24 June 2022. p. 18.Report by Ollie Westbury of book launch in Telford, Shropshire.
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