Athletics: Waterfield's strange life in shadow of the Twister

Commonweath Games: Britain's best young diver will use Manchester as platform for medal assault on Athens Olympics

Peter Waterfield's hopes at the Commonwealth Games will be realised or dashed in half the time it takes you to read this sentence.

Stepping to the edge of a 10-metre platform, the 21-year-old diver will compose himself, take a breath and launch into the Twister, officially rated as his sport's most difficult manoeuvre. In a sequence that takes much longer to explain than to execute, the simple part is the backward two-and-a-half somersaults with two-and-a-half twists. Things start to get tricky with the mid-air, upside-down piked somersault. By the time the brain is moving on towards a smooth entry into the water, the body has already been in and out.

"It's split-second decision-making, but so fast you're not really conscious of it," says Waterfield, trying to explain how his mind functions as his finely honed 5ft 6in frame hurtles and spins downwards. "You've always got the dive in your head, saying to yourself: 'Back two-and-a-half somersaults with two-and-a-half twists.' I think it before I take off but by the end of the sentence I'm in the pool. I just see flashing lights and spinning things."

He tries to elaborate on the detail, talking about "swinging one arm" and "winding into a twist" and getting "one behind the head" but it soon becomes clear that the whole routine, after being learned initially, is instinctive. It is less about remembering what and where and how, and more about reflex and nerve, aerodynamic intuition, faith and hope and heart.

For Waterfield, the Commonwealth Games are all about the future, about using them as a springboard – or platform, which he prefers – for the Athens Olympics in 2004. Born in London but resident in Southampton, he is the best young diver in Britain, and one of the most promising in the world. At the Sydney Olympics, two years ago, he narrowly missed out on a medal in the synchronised 10m event, where he partnered Leon Taylor to fourth place, the best British diving performance at a Games for 40 years.

At last year's World Championships he performed creditably off the 1m springboard and 10m platform, gaining top-15 individual finishes in both disciplines. At the British Championships early this year he swept the board, taking the 1m title, the 3m title, the 10m synchronised title (with Taylor) and the 10m individual event.

In April he won the 10m event at the prestigious European Champions' Cup in Sweden, beating Olympic medal winners in the process. And then last month, in Seville, he was part of the British team who achieved the nation's best-ever result in a World Cup, fourth overall.

In Manchester, he will compete in three events – the 1m and 3m springboards and the 10m platform. He says with some conviction that the 10m event is his best. He should know. Diving has been his life since leaving school in 1998, and the only full-time job he has ever had.

He started swimming as a young child at the local pool in Walthamstow, east London. "I remember watching the divers up at the other end," he said. "It looked more exciting than what I was doing so I went to a summer camp to learn diving. I've always been into sport. Judo, karate, football for my school on the left wing. But I did the diving camp and enjoyed it, then went to a club, had lessons. It all took off from there. It was basically a case of being a little boy with loads of guts who wanted to throw himself about."

After being spotted by his coach, Lindsey Fraser, he was soon competing nationally. By 14 he was winning junior events at European level and by 17 he was a professional, supported by Lottery funding because of his exceptional potential. A re-location to Southampton followed. The city, and more specifically its Quays Swimming and Diving Complex, is his base as he travels internationally to between eight and 10 major events each year.

His lifestyle may sound glamorous but, compared to other sporting East End boys-made-good, it is distinctly low key. A certain footballer called Beckham, for example, who was born in the same postcode as Waterfield, gets by on £90,000 a week, while the diver, approaching the top of his own game, survives on £9,000 a year, give or take some coaching fees, expenses and free facilities.

And while Beckham shares his life with pop star Victoria, young son Brooklyn, a fleet of flashy motors and a couple of custom-built mansions, Waterfield lives with fiancée Tania, who works part-time in Mothercare, and their toddler son, Lewis, in a council flat on the 20th floor of the high-rise Millbrook towers. Appropriate for a diver, maybe, but not so great for Lewis. "Now he's started walking it's a nightmare," Waterfield says. "He goes to the park and doesn't want to come back in."

Housing aside, Waterfield is contented with his lot. "I realise how lucky I am to be doing what I'm doing," he says. "My mates in London work till five or six in the evenings. That's their way of life. I couldn't handle a normal nine to five."

Instead he lives an abnormal nine to five, Monday to Friday, with some Sundays thrown in. The same routine every day, twice a day, before and after lunch. Warm-up, stretches, conditioning, gym work, pool work. In search of the perfect dive but aware it can all go wrong.

"Once when I was doing a forward three-and-a-half tucked, my chin went down too far," he says. "I didn't know where I was. I got lost. I blanked. Ended up doing four somersaults. I got a big slap on the bottom of my legs. Another time I ended up hitting the water on my front. It's like someone's got a bit of fire and run it down your middle. It burns you."

But when it goes right, he says, it is one of the best feelings you can have. You never know which way it will go, but you find out pretty quickly.

The twister: Peter Waterfield's piece de resistance

A dive invented by Leon Taylor, Waterfield's partner in the synchronised 10 metres event, "The Twister" is officially the most difficult dive in the world, with a tariff of 3.8. It consists of a back two-and-a-half somersaults with two-and-a-half twists and takes one-and-a-half seconds. The five main stages are:

1) A backwards launch from the 10m platform, throwing the feet, tight together, upwards.

2) A simultaneous twist of the whole body, anti-clockwise, to be face down when the drop begins.

3) A full somersault, twisting tightly to spin round two-and-a-half times.

4) As the twist finishes, the "pike" is adopted (body bent at the hips) before another somersault.

5) The diver "opens out" to enter the water in a clean vertical line.