Tom Daley dives as the insults fly

At 14, Tom Daley is an iconic figure in British sport - and, judging by the content of the many fan websites dedicated to the diving champion, something of a teen heartthrob.

But while he is idolised on the global stage, back at school in Plymouth "it's the opposite - they all hate me", he told Kevin Eason in the Times. Daley has been the target of bullies for ages, but it reached a peak after the Olympics.

"It's mainly names and chucking paper at me. They call me 'Speedo Boy' and 'Diver Boy'. 'OK, I get it,' I want to tell them, but it just becomes annoying. I don't care, because I am doing something I love, but then I can't walk through school without the names and I just want to say: 'Shut up'."

Still, Daley insists he can cope - just as he coped with the fall out from the Olympics, when an argument between him and his 26-year-old diving partner, Blake Aldridge, was caught on camera during a synchronised diving final in which they came last.

Aldridge later blamed Daley for being "over-nervous". "Of course I was nervous," says Daley. "But I got higher individual scores than him, and he found it easier to blame someone else. I always thought that if you go in as a team, you come out as a team - no matter what happens. If you dive well and your partner doesn't, then you say we both did well because you are a team." ·