Olympic champion Matty Lee – who received gold for Workforce GB alongside Tom Daley on the 2020 Tokyo Video games – has introduced his retirement from diving.
Lee and Daley received Olympic gold within the males’s 10m synchro on the Covid-postponed Video games in 2021, the spotlight of a profession that introduced medals at each main worldwide degree.
The 26-year-old, who underwent surgical procedure on his backbone in early 2024, introduced his determination to retire on Instagram.
Tom Daley and Matty Lee pictured with their gold medals on the Tokyo Video games
“After 20 years in the sport, it’s time for me to step away from diving,” he wrote.
“This decision hasn’t been easy, but after losing my dad in 2022, I struggled to find the same passion I once had, he was my why. Then came injuries, surgeries, and the realisation that I don’t want to be a broken man moving forward.”
Lee made his World Championship debut aged simply 17 in 2015. Two years later he received world combined 10m synchro silver alongside Lois Toulson after which – within the yr after his Olympics success – took silver within the males’s occasion on the 2022 Worlds alongside Noah Williams.
A European title additionally got here alongside Daley in Budapest in Might 2021 the pair warming up for his or her win in Tokyo, the place they defied the chances to beat China’s Cao Yuan and Chen Aisen to gold by 1.2 factors.
Additionally in 2022, Lee and Williams added the Commonwealth Video games title to their world silver, however in March of final yr Lee underwent a discectomy on the L5/S1 disc in his backbone – ruling him out of the Paris Olympics.
In making his announcement, Leeds-born Lee paid tribute to his late father Tim as he thanked household, associates, coaches, team-mates and followers for serving to him all through his profession.
“What’s next?” he wrote. “Honestly, I don’t know. And that’s both terrifying and exciting. But I do know this, there’s more to life than diving, and I’m ready for it.”
