Tom Daley has achieved a world first – by taking a selfie mid-dive.
The Olympic diver teamed up with HTC to capture what is believed to be the first ever selfie during a reverse rotation ‘gainer’ dive on the new HTC U11 smartphone.
Using the phone’s new squeezable selfie feature, Tom leapt off the 10m diving board and took a string of selfies.
He said: "I love taking a selfie, so when the challenge arose to try and take one, and capture myself mid dive, I obviously jumped at the chance.
"The HTC U11’s amazing ‘squeeze to selfie’ function made this possible, and might even be a world first!? It took a few attempts to perfect my dive, but after a few belly flops I got there. I have to say the final photos are easily some of my favourite diving shots ever."
During his visit to London Aquatics Centre, Tom jumped off the board countless times to achieve the perfect selfie but it was the slower rotation of the ‘gainer’ dive – the acrobatic trick of performing a backwards somersault while still moving forward allowed Tom to produce the most Instagrammable photographs, the first time any photography of this kind has been taken at the famous Olympic venue.
The HTC U11 comes with the clever feature, which allows the user to use squeeze the phone to launch the camera app and allow the user to take their selfie from places and angles that they were never able to do before.
Along with this special squeezy feature, the HTC U11 also has a waterproof rating of IP67 as well as super-fast autofocus in all lighting conditions. It also introduces Auto HDR Boost, offering clearer and more balanced pictures with enhanced textures and colours.
The HTC U11 costs £649 and comes in Amazing Silver, Sapphire Blue, Brilliant Black and Ice White with the Solar Red colour arriving at a later date.
Tom Daley’s first diving selfie
