Leon Taylor

Leon Taylor was born on the 2nd November 1977 and is a competitive diver. Leon was very hyperactive as a child so doctors advised his parents to let him do sports so he could focus all his energy on something. He started swimming and doing gymnastics and later got into diving when he was just eight. Three years later, he became the National Champion for under-12's.

Leon came very close to winning a medal in the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney but finished fourth, just out of reach of the Bronze medal. However, Leon and his diving partner Peter Waterfield, finally won the Silver medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. This was Britain's first Olympic diving medal since 1960 and their win, led to more money being invested in the sport to develop new British diving-talent.

Leon has also won medals at all the major championships and is known throughout the sport for inventing the World's most difficult dive. He was set to compete at this years Summer Olympics in Beijing but announced earlier this year that he would retire and instead focus on training new talent like Tom Davey.