LEFT DISAPPOINTED, DESPONDENT and deterred, Oliver Dingley could have packed it all in. His Olympic dream had been unfairly shattered and it all had become a bit much.
Five minutes into London’s opening ceremony and he had to switch it off. He should have been there, he earned the right to be there, but instead he sat in Majorca in tears.
It was unquestionably the lowest point of his career but, as we sit in Dublin’s National Aquatic Centre, he insists he wouldn’t have had it any other way.
With just days until he flies out to Rio, it’s easy to look back on his journey and say it all happened for a reason.
But Dingley very much believes this is his destiny and he was meant to miss out on London and subsequently switch allegiance to the country of his ancestors.
“It was a learning lesson,” he says of four years ago. “Yes I wasn’t taken but it was the start of this journey.
“It was tough but if anything it made me more motivated. When I got on that diving board in Rio for the qualifiers, it was in my hands. This time it was in my hands. I definitely wasn’t going to let that slip again.”
Dingley, who became the youngest ever British champion on the one-metre springboard at the age of 15, finished second in the trials for London. The British team had two diving spots but he was controversially overlooked.
He was left heartbroken. Everything he had dreamed of and trained for was taken away in the cruellest of circumstances — and then it happened again.
Days before the 2014 Commonwealth Games, he was told he wouldn’t be competing in his main event. It was another bitter pill to swallow but it speaks volumes of his character that Dingley went out and claimed bronze on the three-metre board.
But his mind had already been made up. He was relocating to Dublin and switching his allegiance to Ireland.
“Growing up I was always a fan of the Irish and my earliest memory is the 2002 World Cup and everyone was there in the primary school hall supporting England and I was the only one there supporting Ireland,” Dingley continues.
“I’ve always been very proud of my Irish heritage and to wear my green jersey at the Olympics will be surreal moment and I’m very humbled that I’ve been accepted the way I have.
“After I qualified for the Games the response was amazing, it was something I always did worry about and still do. There will always be people, everyone has their own opinions but for me nothing makes me more proud than to wear my Irish tracksuit.”
It was a risk. Dingley upped sticks and headed across the Irish sea with his career on the line. There were so many questions without answers. Funding? accommodation? Facilities? But Great Britain’s loss was Ireland’s gain.
“My grandmother is from Cork, near Spike Island, and we would come over every now and again,” he explains.
“Moving over, I was very wary and I was very worried as well. The big thing for me was that I wanted to train in Ireland and use Irish facilities and train with Irish divers. I’m very lucky that I can do that in Dublin and the response has been generally very good and I’m very humbled.
“For me personally, I wouldn’t have had it any other way.”
Born and raised in Horrogate in North Yorkshire, Dingley ate, drank and slept diving from a young age. His talent was evident from the outset as he rose to prominence by winning prestigious youth competitions at home and abroad.
He was also a talented footballer, playing with Middlesbrough into his teenage years, but diving was his first love and he was committed to making every sacrifice in order to realise his full potential.
The ultimate one came by leaving everything behind after becoming disillusioned with the country of his birth — but not a minute has gone by when he’s regretted his decision.
“Going back to when I was a young kid, the very first sports person I met was Andy O’Brien [Irish international footballer]. He was actually born in Harrogate and went to the same high school.
“He won’t remember this but he presented me with a trophy and ever since then I’ve wanted to play or represent Ireland. Little moments like that opened my eyes to sport in general and I think that’s the amazing things with the Olympics, with me qualifying hopefully it brings diving to the forefront of people’s minds and hopefully, you never know, inspire a few kids to get into the sport.
“I hope I am repaying everybody because I am extremely lucky. Rio is only the start but I know I’m so lucky Swim Ireland accepted me and that the whole nation have welcomed me in.
“The funding was never there to have a diving programme so the opportunity was never there for me to come to Ireland before but when that chance came I had to grab it with both hands.
“At the time, there was so many thoughts going around but since then I’ve been able to take control of my own destiny and future and really just do the best I can.”
Ireland hasn’t had a representative in an Olympic diving event since Eddie Heron took to the board in 1948. Dingley has already made history by earning qualification via the World Cup event in Rio last February.
When he enters the limelight on Monday 15 August for the men’s three-metre springboard preliminaries, it will be the culmination of years of blood, sweat and tears.
His parents are making the trip out to Rio to be there for, what he describes as, the ‘biggest moment of his life.’
“I never just want to be a competitor, I want to be the best,” he says.
“A final would be a good goal but we try not to think about the end outcome because then we start to forget about the present. If you do one thing wrong then that’s a medal gone, a final gone.
“But when I go to bed at night I think about my dives. I’ve got goosebumps just thinking about it. To get a medal is the pinnacle of any athlete’s career. It would be hard to put into words.
“There’s no point in going if you don’t aim high and if there’s one way I want to do it, it’s definitely the Irish way.”
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