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Leon takes the plunge with new direction
INJURY ended Sheffield diver Leon Taylor's successful Olympic career when doctors said there was little they could do for him.
Facing his fourth shoulder operation in the run-up to the Beijing Olympics, Taylor, who now mentors 15-year-old world champion Tom Daley, was told by medics: "If you were a horse we would have to shoot you. It is that bad.
"Do not do anything that would be dangerous for your body," he was warned.
So what do top athletes do once their careers are abruptly ended by injury?
In Taylor's case he mentors Daley – perhaps Britain's greatest diving hope, he is a sports commentator – and now he intends to be a yoga guru.
This last role is a spin-off from having to recover from his career-ending shoulder damage.
Leon, aged 32, recalls: "The medics said 'you have to make sensible choices and you cannot continue to do anything dynamic. This is your fourth shoulder surgery'."
The warning put Leon on the road to his conversion now as a yoga teacher.
At his doctors' request he indulged in pilates and Bikram yoga and then found he got so engrossed in it that he spent the last summer training in Arizona with yoga specialists.
He is now looking for premises in London to open up a "hot yoga" studio.
This is yoga in a hot room "quite like a sauna," according to Taylor, so it is as if you are sweating it out in a warm climate and getting a thorough detoxification.
Currently based in Sheffield, the Cheltenham-born former diver is moving down to London in the new year.
"I do not regret a single moment of my sporting career but it does take an impact on the body," he said.
"The yoga for me is something very much that has come from the diving and looking after your body.
"It now means I have a lot of irons in a lot of fires but I think you just find ways to cope when it gets busy.
"The good thing for me personally is that actually doing the yoga is a chance to heal your body and think of using your time wisely."
Leon won a silver medal in the synchronised 10m platform diving in Athens 2004 with Pete Waterfield. They were the first British divers to win an Olympic medal since Brian Phelps' individual bronze in 1960.
His international diving career began at 16 and was followed with his first appearance at an Olympics – the 1996 Atlanta games.
Leon also makes himself available if Daley, whom he first met when the youngster was 10, just wants to chat.
He is passing on knowledge and advice on anything from how to cope with the international circuit to the growing media spotlight and training tips.
Leon said: "The great thing about Tom and the mentoring is that with Facebook and the mobile telephone, we can always touch base.
"I try to make sure that everything is cool with him and he is fine. It is important work for me – it is something I enjoy."
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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