From today, though, the pressure is gone, his dreams realised in full. Next up is what’s most exciting – Daley’s new leap, so to speak, now that he’s hung up his shammy.

For one, his children are growing up fast. Robbie, who actually convinced Daley to come back for Paris after Tokyo (when the diver first considered walking away), is entering the first grade in Los Angeles – and has himself jumped off 3-meter-high diving boards since the age of four. Daley tries to coach him, but “he very much does not like to be told what to do.”

There are also media, entertainment, and sartorial ventures to consider. In Paris, Daley stayed through the duration of the Games as a pundit for Eurosport. He says he’s interested in something in front of the camera, maybe.

“I’ve also enrolled in a class, a course at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (FIDM) in Los Angeles, to be able to learn how to sew,” he adds. “I knit and I crochet, but sewing will just add a whole different level of knowledge as to how to construct things. I’ve actually designed a couple of pieces of underwear that I’m going to be launching, and then I’m also hoping to launch a swimwear project next year.” Daley says he’d love to scale businesses from these ideas, but is content, for now, with Made With Love.

I ask him if he’ll dive recreationally. He hesitates. “I don’t know,” he says. “It’s hard to dive that way. You need the proper set-up and pool. People don’t have that at their homes.” Indeed, everything about this next stage in his life – being “a ‘dover’ instead of a diver,” as he puts it – will require some recalibrating.

“I’ve spent my whole life doing this,” Daley says, as Paris’s afternoon light bounces off of Soho House’s pool and catches the facets in his silver medal, which splinters the beams into a pinwheel. “Actually being able to let go of it – it’s going to be hard. And it’s going to be a major adjustment to figure out how my days are structured.”

But his outlook is positive – as bright as the wedges of sun dancing on his hardware. “I would love,” he says, “for people to remember me for being a person that persevered, who persisted and didn’t give up on his dream until he was able to achieve it.”

Then, he adds: “To currently be Britain’s most decorated diver… I feel so incredibly proud. When I look back, I’m really, genuinely satisfied with what I’ve done.”