David Priestley

Blackpool´s David Preistley was the 1961 English school´s diving champion and was runner-up in the Northern Counties high-board championship that same year. He went on to win the first of two successive national platform titles in 1967, and by that time was an established international and had competed in both the British Empire Commonwealth Games and European Swimming Championships.

Priestley represented Wales in the 1966 Commonwealth Games at Kingston, Jamaica, and was fifth in the platform and eighth in the 3-metre springboard event. At the European Championships in Utrecht two weeks later, Priestley was lying third in the platform competition after seven dives but ended up without a medal in eighth place after his ten dives. As the national platform champion, Priestley went to the 1968 Olympics but failed to make the final 12. He announced his retirement from competitive diving while in Mexico. A draughtsman by profession, Priestley turned professional and took part in exhibitions and joined the Brian Phelps Aqua Show.