To depict them as a pair of glorious British amateurs would be something of an exaggeration.
Yet as Tom Daley embraced his latest diving partner, Noah Williams, on the medal podium yesterday, it was unavoidable to compare their sketchy preparations for these Games with those of the Chinese duo who had consigned them to silver.
Singled out for greatness in infancy by the state sports programme, the winners had doubtless spent so many years perfecting their synchronicity that by the time they reached Paris they might as well have been joined at the hip.
But as Daley confided with a smile yesterday, he and Williams had only teamed up for Paris on the hoof, last November, after he curtailed his two-year retirement.
Moreover, as Williams lives in Hackney, while Daley and his husband, Hollywood scriptwriter Lance Black, are now based in Los Angeles with sons Robbie, aged six, and Phoenix, who is one, they only practised together when they occasionally met up at competitions.
Tom…