Sound of Laugher: Why another Olympic medal won't change this normal kid from Yorkshire
The 21-year-old, who claimed a stunning gold with “best bud” Chris Mears in the synchronised three metres springboard last week, added a silver behind China’s Cao Yuan in the individual event.
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Hide AdLaugher, a Harrogate-born Playstation enthusiast, is adamant his success will not change him once he returns home from the “weird Olympic bubble”.
“You don’t really get how big an achievement it actually is to come away with a gold and a silver,” he said.
“I know everyone’s so proud of me back home but I’m just a normal kid from Yorkshire.
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Hide Ad“This is my job and I love it every single day. Nothing’s going to change on my end. I’m looking forward to going back for sure.”
One thing he will do is take a ride on the number 36 bus from Ripon to Leeds, which was named after him following his gold medal with Mears.
He said: “The bus goes from Ripon through Harrogate to Leeds, which is kind of my life story. It really touched me, that was really nice to hear. I’ll try and spot it. I might be on there for a couple of hours.”
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Hide AdLaugher produced a consistently excellent series of dives on Tuesday, only once dropping below 80 points and posting three scores in the 90s to finish comfortably ahead of Germany’s Patrick Hausding in third.
It was all a very different story to the morning’s semi-final, when three poor dives left him on the brink of elimination.
He attributed his semi-final struggle to nerves as well as the colour of the pool. Having been restored to sparkling blue from murky green, the sun made it tricky to spot his entry.
There were no such concerns in the evening final.
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Hide AdHe admitted refocusing after the high of the synchro gold had been difficult, saying: “It was really hard to reset because that is the pinnacle of my entire career so far.
“Olympic gold is just something to be cherished for an entire lifetime so it was really hard coming off that mountain top and dropping back down to getting up at 6am and doing training. But I really focused well.”
Laugher was cheered on by his British team-mates including Tom Daley, who will hope to add to diving’s already impressive haul of three medals when he goes in the 10m platform at the weekend.