Swimming stars back Tom Daley over diving show Splash! row

Tom Daley mentors the celebrity divers on ITV's Splash! Credit: ITV

Swimming stars including Rebecca Adlington and four-time Olympic champion Greg Louganis have backed Tom Daley over the row over his appearance on ITV diving show Splash!

Earlier this week, British Swimming chief executive David Sparkes, questioned Tom's decision to appear on the show, which was broadcast for the first time last Saturday.

Mr Sparkes accused the 18-year-old of "putting the cart before the horse" before achieving "his full potential".

In response, Tom's mother Debbie, wrote a scathing open letter to Mr Sparkes in the Daily Mail.

Mrs Daley went on:

Tom later tweeted a message of thanks to his "amazing" mother.

Two-time Olympic medallist Rebecca Adlington tweeted:

Leon Taylor, a silver medallist in the 10m synchro diving at the 2004 Athens Olympic - who is also a judge on Splash! - also backed Mrs Daley:

In response to Mr Sparkes' comment "You can rest assured the next Chinese diving superstar will not have such distractions from training", Mrs Daley also said:

Tom Daley dives during the men's 10m platform final at London 2012. Credit: Stephen Pond/PA Wire/Press Association Images

One of Tom's heroes, Greg Louganis, a four-time Olympic champion told the Daily Mail: "We don't live in China. It's a rather different mentality.

"It's so hard to train for the Olympic Games. There is a whole world out there. Sometimes you need perspective to see what this journey is all about instead of just focusing on the result".

Mrs Daley also said she believes Splash! is an "appropriate" show for Tom which will help promote his sport.

Tom Daley pictured with his mother Debbie and late father Rob in 2008 Credit: David Davies/PA wire.
Omid Djalili dived his way into the semi-final on last weekend Credit: ITV News

The diver's agent, Jamie Cunningham said:

Splash had a peak audience of 6.3 million, making it the highest rating show, last Saturday.