Daley Thompson
Daley Thompson
Francis Morgan Ayodélé "Daley" Thompson, CBE, is an English former decathlete. He won the decathlon gold medal at the Olympic Games in 1980 and 1984, and broke the world record for the event four times...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionDecathlete
Date of Birth30 July 1958
thinking years would-be
There's no day when I don't think it would be great to be 25 years old and have the Olympics coming in less than 300 days - and be the best in the world. I can't think of anything so motivating.
jobs thinking years
I think one of the things about being a good coach is to recognise when you have given all that you can. In fact there should be some sort of unspoken law that says that a coach cannot have anyone for three or four years - if you have not passed on most of the stuff you know in that time, then you are not doing a good job.
motivation heart thinking
In my heart of hearts my motivation would always have been to be the best, and I think that athletics is probably what I was built for.
thinking winning guy
The only limitations are mental. The guy who thinks positively will win.
bit olympic takes
You can be an Olympic champion in 9.5 secs, but to be the greatest, there's more to it. It takes a bit of forethought and a lot of mental application.
best english-athlete
We live in the best place on earth but at times the worst.
athletes athletics bit expect extent five follow force frankly great indian pick reckon
Frankly I don't follow Indian athletics to a great extent but I do know that it has started to pick up a bit of late. Five years hence, I expect Indian athletes to be a force to reckon with.
school kids two
There were only ever two black kids at my school. I never considered myself to be 'a black kid'. I was who I was. Which isn't to say things haven't happened to me that wouldn't have happened if I wasn't black.
weight shots stadiums
When you're walking into the stadium, you just say to yourself, 'the 100m is the same anywhere, the shot put is the same weight anywhere.'
games community olympics
Even if you've been involved in a World Cup, the Olympics is huge. Only the Games has the power to change communities.
kids natural
For kids it's natural to be competitive.
athlete people feelings
People tend to like an athlete's performance, but if you don't get a feeling for the individual, you're not very emotive about them.
people boring these-days
Most people doing the decathlon these days are quite boring, so people don't relate to them.
athlete careers people
Athletes these days are too robotic. People like to see performances filled with emotion. In my career I tried to be amusing, to differentiate myself from the other champions.