HE is yet to turn 30, but Ripon diver Jack Laugher insists he is revelling in the role of an “old soul” as prepares to head into his fourth Olympics in Paris.
Having emerged unscathed from a tumultuous Tokyo cycle, the 2016 diving gold medallist hopes a wiser approach will pay dividends alongside his new synchro diving partner Anthony Harding, who will be competing at his first Games in the French capital.
“I feel like I give that fatherly feel to the team,” laughed Laugher, a relative veteran who made his Olympic debut in London 2012 at the age of 17, where he failed to reach the semi-final stage.
“There are people in the team who are 18 or 19 and I’m more than ten years their senior. They wouldn’t know how to hang a picture frame. Neither did I at that stage, but I’ve learned how to be a functioning human being. I may be a bit of an old soul, but there’s life in me yet.”
Laugher has been candid about struggles with his mental health in the belated build-up to Tokyo, a Games in which the addition of an individual bronze to his medal collection did not entirely alleviate the sense of something missing in an event played out in front of mainly empty stands.
“I had a bumpy road leading up to Tokyo, my mental state was in a bad place so in a way having no fans there might have taken the pressure off me a little bit, but it also felt like a flat competition in that respect,” added Laugher, who has had a pool in his hometown of Ripon – the Jack Laugher Leisure and Wellness Centre – named in his honour.
“The life of an athlete is never as easy and glamorous as some people think. It’s extremely technical and when those elements aren’t coming together correctly, it can be extremely stressful and bring self-doubt and other spiralling emotions.
“But I feel like I overcame all that stuff really well, and I’m in a much better place right now. I’m really enjoying my sport at the moment and I feel like I’ve got plenty of time still to go.”
Laugher linked up with Harding after splitting with his former partner Dan Goodfellow, with whom he finished a disappointing seventh in Tokyo, and the new pair forged a successful partnership almost immediately, winning a silver medal at the 2022 World Championships as well as gold at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games.
Harding does have some experience of the multi-sport environment, having secured a silver medal at the 2018 Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires, and Laugher’s desire to consolidate his status as one of the leading divers of his generation remains undimmed despite the advancing years.
“I’m not as young as I was and that makes it more difficult, but I’m resigned to knowing things are going to get slightly slower and more difficult,” said Laugher.
“I’ve achieved what every athlete wants to achieve, an Olympic gold medal, which means that every time I go and compete now it’s a bit of a blessing. But that doesn’t mean I’m not looking to add to that tally, and dreaming of being on that podium and winning it again.”
However, while age gaps might not matter on the end of the springboard, Laugher concedes there is one aspect to his new partnership which remains unbridgeable.
“My music tastes have changed massively,” said Laugher. “I don’t like to be in that elevated state of all guns blazing, it’s not the state I like to compete in any more. I’m into a lot of easy listening, whereas Anthony has just turned 24 and is into all the sort of stuff that I could no longer care less about.”
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