Tom Daley hits back after Britain's top diving coach and swimming chief both cast doubt on his his Olympic hopes Evangulov's comments, made to The Daily Telegraph on Tuesday and supported by the chief executive of British Swimming on Wednesday, drew an indignant response from Daley's agent, who denied the 17 year-old is spending too much time on commercial and media work. They dismissed the comparison with Chinese divers, claiming it was not "valid." Daley's agent, PSG, said: "The comparisons with China may be relevant from a sporting perspective, but are less valid from a cultural and human one. We turn down over 95 per cent of media and commercial approaches for Tom. We only work with a small team of sponsors and ensure that any media is either necessary or - very occasionally - fun, given Tom's interest and studies in both photography and media. Daley has endorsement deals with Mini, adidas and Nestle, as well as a personal website and TV channel. He has also been available to hire for private speaking functions. Despite the Daley camp's protests, David Sparkes, the chief executive of British Swimming, backed the views of Evangulaov, who is performance director for the British diving team. David is supportive of Alexei's stance. We want athletes to be the best they can be and to be able to perform at the highest levels and we work with agents and athletes to minimise disruptions so that can be achieved," a spokesman said. The coach's comments, which included remarks that Daley was not the best in the world as mistakenly believed by the public in Great Britain, have sparked a war of words that threatens to split the diving community on the eve of the Olympic test event at Olympic Park next week. Evangulov had said Daley, the 2009 world champion in the 10 metre platform, was putting his Olympic medal chances at risk if he did not reduce his media work and concentrate more fully on diving.