Coming Up for Air

Starred review from May 1, 2022

Anyone who has followed Daley's career as a world-class Olympic diver knows he is not only talented but charming as well. His charm comes through these pages in abundance. The core of the memoir is divided into eleven chapters reflecting his values. They have titles such as Purpose, Endurance, Resilience, and Confidence. Some deal with aspects of his personal life. The tragic death of his father, his great cheerleader, from brain cancer is one of the sadder moments. Daley's account of meeting Dustin Lance Black, the Academy Award-winning screen writer (Milk) who became his husband in 2017, is also a very touching chapter. Of course, Daley's diving career is covered in great detail with the highs and lows of any champion. But the memoir's ultimate events are the birth of his son through surrogacy and the winning of the gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. What comes through clearly throughout the book is that Daley cares deeply about family and that his husband and son are the loves of his life. VERDICT Daley's conversational style will appeal to a wide audience interested in sports and contemporary gay lives. Highly recommended.--David Azzolina

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Starred review from April 15, 2022
British diving champion Daley, a four-time Olympian, burst onto the world stage as a 14-year-old in the 2008 Beijing Games, later winning a gold medal at the 2020 Games. This moving memoir opens with Daley struggling from Lost Movement Syndrome, a psychological condition in which athletes suddenly cannot perform a skill they were previously able to do well. The determined Daley and his coach work through the crisis by developing a new dive, "The Firework." With chapters covering themes like "Endurance," "Resilience," and "Motivation," a consistent pattern emerges of a focused Daley overcoming obstacles, from being bullied as a boy to coping with the death of his beloved father. He also recounts how he took charge of his narrative by coming out as gay on his YouTube channel and later marrying American Dustin Lance Black, an Oscar-winning Screenwriter (Milk). Daley is forthright when discussing the legal and emotional implications of him and Black becoming parents to their son via surrogacy. This is an important historical account of training for the Olympics during a pandemic and an inspirational memoir of a young gay man coming into his own as an athlete, advocate, husband, and father, who is at ease whether he's executing a forward three-and-a-half somersault or knitting between competitions. An important book for sports and LGBTQ collections.

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