London 2012 Olympics: British Swimming chief executive David Sparkes follows coach in criticising Tom Daley

The head of British swimming is the latest key figure to reveal his alarm that diving star Tom Daley could blow the chance of his young life if he does not work harder on his Olympic preparations.

Under fire: Tom Daley needs to focus more on his Olympic preparations, according to the head of British Swimming Photo: PA

David Sparkes, chief executive of British Swimming, has also offered full backing to the criticisms aimed at Daley ahead of the Olympics by his diving performance director Alexei Evangulov following the teenager’s poor performance in the World Cup test event at the Olympic Aquatics Centre.

Insisting that he and other officials had been flagging up their concerns to Daley’s handlers for 18 months about the youngster failing to find the right balance between training and media commitments, Sparkes said he was still concerned that the 17 year-old was not in optimum shape.

He also hinted that Evangulov’s criticism, culminating in his suggestion that Daley was in danger of failing to fulfil his talent and of becoming diving’s answer to Anna Kournikova, stemmed only from the Russian’s increasing frustration that the youngster was not heeding his advice.

After Evangulov’s latest tirade following Daley’s seventh-place finish with Peter Waterfield in the synchro event, Sparkes admitted that “in an ideal world” the debates surrounding the poster boy’s commitment would have been thrashed out behind closed doors.

But Sparkes added pointedly: “You might come to the conclusion there’s a hint of frustration here.  "Here is a world-beating coach who sees a world-beating athlete not committing sufficient time to the task and in turn perhaps not listening as intently as he should be to what Alexei has been telling him about the need to focus on training and be away from the media circus.”

Asked if he agreed with Evangulov, Sparkes insisted: “100 per cent. The danger here is that Tom doesn’t get the work under his belt and isn’t able to perform to the degree we believe he can.

"Our prime interest has to be to make sure this incredible young man gives himself the best opportunity to achieve what could be a life-changing result in London.

“We can only admire the way Tom handles the media — he’s incredibly good at it — but it’s impossible to win medals now on just talent alone; you have to do the hard work.

“We know that when he is prepared and at his best, Tom can beat the world’s best but what is equally clear is that he has some way to go to get into tip-top condition.

"We’ve expressed concern now for about 18 months with Tom’s agents and coach about the need to get that balance right.”

On Thursday, Daley said that he could not train any harder without his body breaking down but Sparkes responded: “We fully understand that and nobody want his body to break down.

"But there are many aspects of training which don’t cause bodies to break down.

“And now it’s all about putting in sheer hard work up to London. I still believe if Tom does knuckle down, he can inspire the nation in the summer.”

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