Queen Elizabeth’s hilarious suggestion to Tom Daley is something we think Princess Charlotte would’ve loved to see happen.
If there was one thing the late Queen Elizabeth was known for - aside from her vibrant outfits and adorable corgis - it has to be her sense of humour. Her quick wit was never confined to behind palace doors and she often poked fun at herself during engagements. It seems she once did just that during a meeting with British diver Tom Daley in 2016 and even now, Queen Elizabeth’s hilarious suggestion is still iconic. As reported by Hello!, Tom - who has won silver in the Synchronised 10m Platform diving with Noah Williams at the Paris 2024 Olympics, discussed Queen Elizabeth’s remark about her height on Swedish chat show Skavlan.
"She commented on her height compared to some of the other athletes in the room and because me and the other athletes were quite small, she said, 'Maybe I should try gymnastics'," Tom recalled. "She was fully game to get involved in the sport."
Over the years reports have suggested that Britain’s longest-reigning monarch was either 5 ft 4 or 5 ft 3, whilst Tom Daley is 5 ft 10. Queen Elizabeth’s height-related quip is so characteristic of her sense of humour and it’s brilliant to think that she was "fully game" to give gymnastics a go. Although horse-racing was perhaps Her Majesty’s biggest sporting passion, she was reportedly also a huge fan of gymnastics.
According to the BBC, back in 2017 when Queen Elizabeth awarded double Olympic Champion gymnast Max Whitlock his MBE at Buckingham Palace, she apparently expressed her love for the sport and how she watched it at home.
"She told me she loved watching the gymnastics because the stuff that we do doesn't seem possible," Max declared afterwards. "It was pretty cool to hear the Queen say she likes the sport."
The late Queen’s enthusiasm for gymnastics is something that she shared with her great-granddaughter Princess Charlotte. At the Commonwealth Games in 2022, the young royal revealed that gymnastics was her favourite sport. Even before this, the clues were there that she was going to be a fan, as the Princess of Wales explained in Ireland in 2020 that her daughter was forever doing "cartwheels" and handstands.
"Charlotte is really into gymnastics, she’s doing cartwheels, handstands, everything," the Princess of Wales said, as per Entertainment Daily. "It’s so good for their basic skills of balance and coordination."
It seems as though Cirque du Soleil might have been one source of inspiration as Prince William added, “And their flexibility, it’s really good for their long-term health, isn’t it? We went to watch the Cirque du Soleil recently, it was amazing.”
Princess Charlotte likely would’ve been delighted if Queen Elizabeth’s hilarious suggestion about getting into gymnastics had come to pass. Whilst this wasn’t to be, the sport-loving monarch was a person of honour at the Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics and rather stole the show with her James Bond sketch - something that once again showcased her sense of humour.
“The Queen never told her family she was doing it,” production stage manager Sam Hunter claimed, as per Metro. “That was one of the stipulations when she agreed to be part of it but she didn’t want them to know. So if you actually see when she comes and she takes her seat, you can see her family go, ‘Ah, nice one.’”
