In coverage of Britain’s Olympic champions so far, one person appeared to be missing: Dan Goodfellow, one-half of the British diving duo who secured a bronze medal in the men’s 10m synchronised diving.
The Olympic medalist was obscured from coverage by the celebrity engulfing Tom Daley, who featured prominently in stories about their triumph at Rio.
Goodfellow was either cut out of pictures or referred to as Daley's “partner” instead of by name in a number of articles in British newspapers.
His mother Sharon Goodfellow responded on Twitter on Monday evening to a front page of The Daily Telegraph by saying she was “very surprised” at the coverage.
Alex Kay-Jelski, the Sports Editor for The Times, said editors were up against “manic” deadlines for the Olympics and a change had been made for the second edition.
Goodfellow, 19, from Cambridge, and Daley, 22, have been living together in Daley’s London home in the days running up to the Olympics after training together for just 10 months. Daley has competed in the Olympics in 2008 and 2012, while Goodfellow represented Britain in the Games for the first time at Rio. Responding to his Olympic win, Goodfellow said: “Words can’t describe how good I feel right now”.
Sharon did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Independent, but she did say thank you on Twitter yesterday evening for the “hundreds” of congratulatory messages she received.
Daley will compete again in the 10m synchro next Saturday.
