Daley arrives and admirer Ducruet is already waiting

GET over 3,000 fit and competitive teenagers in one place and expect sparks to fly – which is probably why organisers of the first-ever Youth Olympic Games feel the need to prowl the halls of the athletes’ village to make sure they are all tucked up in the appropriate beds.

STAR PAIR: Monaco’s Pauline Ducruet – the daughter of Princess Stephanie – and Great Britain’s Tom Daley are both competing in the diving events at the Youth Olympic Games (Reuters)

World champion diver Tom Daley arrives in Singapore today and can expect to be the centre of attention, as he battles to recover from the injury that ruled him out of last week’s 10m platform title defence at the European Championships in Budapest.

Daley won an army of fans with his performances at the Beijing Olympics and has steadily added to that legion in the two years since.

But the likeable 16-year old was previously left red-faced when his Dad revealed he had a royal admirer.

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Pauline Ducruet, daughter of Princess Stephanie of Monaco and eighth in line to her country’s throne, has professed her affections to the teenage diver, according to Rob Daley.

Ducruet, who competes for Monaco in the women’s 3m springboard in Singapore, and Daley are reportedly Facebook friends and regularly meet up on the international diving circuit.

Princess Stephanie has accompanied her daughter to the Lion City and insists the teenager is enjoying every minute of the experience…and Tom’s not even arrived yet.

“The Olympic village is like a big camp and I see my daughters’ eyes and the stars she has in them,” she said. 

“Of course she wants to make the finals but she wants to enjoy herself and have the best experience of her life, have great memories and make new friends.

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“I am here to offer support but I will probably be more nervous because it means so much to her.

“The athletes are so young and at the beginning of a career. That is what is so great, that they have the opportunity at these Olympic Games to test their skills.”

Ducret’s great-grandfather John Kelly, the father of Hollywood actress Grace, won three Olympic rowing golds in the 1920’s while uncle Prince Albert is an International Olympic Committee member who represented Monaco’s bobsleigh team in five Olympic Winter Games.

But while wise to follow their examples, Ducruet should not to take any romantic advice from mum, who famously married her bodyguard, dated her ski instructor, moved in with a circus owner and romanced her father’s butler.

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