Dan Goodfellow will be aiming to secure a place in the Commonwealth England squad during the British Diving Championships in Plymouth this weekend.
But his journey to an Olympic Bronze Medal in Rio 2016 showed resilience and determination after being side-lined for a year with nerve damage that could have ended his career.
He said: “I just woke up in the middle of the night with a really sharp pain in my shoulder. I just thought it was a dead shoulder at first.”
But it turned out he had a nerve palsy that meant he couldn’t lift his arm above his head. The 21-year-old was left with the difficult decision to go for surgery that may not fix the issue, or give up diving altogether.
He said: “I knew if I couldn’t lift my arm I’d never be able to get back in the pool again. I had no other option but to go for the operation as it was take the risk or never dive again.
“I went to see a specialist in London and had the surgery on Christmas Eve. I just didn’t see there was any other option.”
Having taken a year out of the sport, which is almost unheard of in elite diving, he then got back into training having to rebuild his technique and physical strength.
“When it was time to get back on the platform I was really scared the first time.
“Having a year off in diving is really difficult as it is a repetition sport.
“You are training six hours a day to get the technique correct and then have to build up your strength too.
“Getting strong again was the easy bit – I had to spend three to four months just doing basic dives.
“Then I started again on the 3m and went to a competition in Italy and made the final, even though I had only been back for six months.
Dan was then taken to one side by a coach and told that Tom didn’t currently have a partner for the Synchro events at the World Championships and he was being considered as one of the potential candidates.
The Leeds based diver added: “I just went and learned the dives. I have never been so motivated. I was going to do it.
“It’s the ultimate pressure sport. You train for 15 years for 18 seconds worth of dives.
“I knew when I paired with Tom that he had a huge profile, and that anyone working with him would be scrutinised.
“But you can’t sit and worry about it, you just have to go out and do your best.”
In their first World Series pairing together Dan and Tom qualified for the finals, taking a bronze and helping to secure their place at Rio.
“We knew the Olympics was going to be a difficult competition
“During the competition we just chatted to each other like we normally would any other time. We just tried to keep it normal.
“We were diving last so we knew what we needed to do. Looking back I don’t know how we managed to stay relaxed – it was just amazing.
“Thinking about my injury know I know you just have to weigh up how much you want it.
“If you want it more than anything else, you can do it and you can even come back better!”
The British Diving Championships will take place from January 26th to 28th at the Plymouth Life Centre. This will be the last chance for divers to impress selectors ahead of the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast, Australia.
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