Tom Daley taking London 2012 Twitter abuse 'in his stride'

London 2012 athlete Tom Daley is said to have taken the abuse he received from a Twitter user "in his stride".

The 18-year-old Olympian was branded a "little p***y" and "an absolute waste of space" by an individual on the site after finishing fourth in the synchronised diving yesterday (July 30).



A 17-year-old has now been arrested over the tweets, which included an upsetting reference to Daley's late father and threats to "drown [him] in the pool".

Speaking about the scandal today, Sir Clive Woodward - the Deputy Chef de Mission for Team GB - said that Daley is hoping the events on Twitter will not become "a big issue" as he prepares for the individual event on August 10.

"Tom's aware of it, he's taken it all in his stride, doesn't want to make a big issue," Woodward told BBC News.

"I'm delighted the police have stepped in and taken it out of everyone's hands and they've acted accordingly."



Woodward went on to say that he does not see a problem with athletes using Twitter, arguing: "Social media is here to stay... you've got to understand [there's] maybe the odd downside.

"It's got to be put in perspective - 400 million tweets a day, you're going to get one or two strange ones coming through. I'm just glad the police have reacted the way they reacted."

Since initially bringing the comments to the attention of his followers, Daley has refrained from addressing the controversy on Twitter, using the site mainly to thank those leaving him good luck messages, including One Direction member Louis Tomlinson.

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