Newspapers Cropped This Olympian Out Of His Big Moment And His Mom Is Pissed
Daniel Goodfellow and Thomas Daley were just awarded bronze medals in the men's synchronized 10-meter platform dive at the 2016 Rio Olympics. Say what you want about the Olympics, but moments like this warm the shriveled, frozen blood-pump in my chest.
Can't get over this So happy for them! pic.twitter.com/OmmmhmTv0M — marion (@marion_s22) August 8, 2016
Their dive itself is obviously spectacular.
Unfortunately for Goodfellow, Thomas Daley is being featured disproportionately more in the photographs chosen by nearly all the UK newspapers.
Thomas Daley got memed a bunch in 2012 because he won the bronze medal while also being extremely good-looking, and this likely has a lot to do with all the skewed press regarding the event.
That said, Goodfellow is being snubbed pretty severely. Mashable points out one British newspaper even identified Goodfellow as Daley's "[synchronized] partner."
Goodfellow's also being cropped out of most of the photographs of the event, like this one.
A lot of other papers did the same exact thing.
Well, one person in particular has taken issue with all this, namely, Goodfellow's mom, Sharon.
Sharon wasn't having any of this shit.
You're absolutely right, Sharon. Extremely uncool.
But let me explain, Sharon -- can I call you Sharon by the way? No? OK, sorry -- Let me explain, Mrs. Goodfellow. (Is it Mrs or Ms? Anyway, we'll talk later.)
The only reason this happened is because that picture up there of Tom Daley and his, um, body/face combo is going to make every straight woman, gay man, straight man, gay woman and everything in between and every organism living on this planet, as well as any and all ghosts, want to buy the paper.
See Sharon, your son is also very handsome (and has the body of Apollo), but that picture of Tom Daley up there is basically Olympics porn.
The other reason for the skewed stories would be name recognition, which is also a shitty thing to do.
This one is especially rude.
Like, Daley and Goodfellow did it together. It's literally called synchronized diving. They had to do exactly the same dive in order to win.
There could not be a clearer instance when the glory should be shared. And yet, this paper puts only Daley's name on it.
But, Goodfellow did get some coverage, and to be honest, I feel like you could literally set this guy's house on fire and he'd still be walking on air.
Side note: It's always really weird when athletes are also super good-looking. Like, what, you're the (third) best in the world at this very specific thing, and you also have the faces of angels?
I feel like that shouldn't be allowed. Pick a lane, guys. Pick a lane.
Citations: Olympic diver's mom calls out media on Twitter for ignoring son (Mashable), When Does Tom Daley Dive Next? Here's the British Diver's Rio Olympics Schedule (Mic)