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
motivational sports country
When we stage the Olympics it will inspire kids all over the country. A kid in Scotland or Ireland will be encouraged to take up sport.
people easy difficult
It's good to be difficult to know. Too many people are too easy to know.
people answers want
I'm obsessive. I want to know the answer to how good I am. Most people aren't.
kids made situation
Ever since I was a kid, whatever situation I was presented with, I always made the most of it.
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.
winning get-better
I am only about winning and getting better.
girlfriend losing ten
Being a decathlete is like having ten girlfriends. You have to love them all, and you can't afford losing one.
lying tape
The stopwatch doesn't lie. The tape measure doesn't lie.
player tennis personality
There are lots of women tennis players, for instance, but because not many of them seem to have much personality, they're interchangeable. You don't have a feeling about them.
kids vegetables weight
I tend to eat vegetables only when I'm with the kids and the rest of the time, I'm a bit slack. But, I am weight-conscious, so I concentrate on avoiding junk food.
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.'
kids years people
People don't want to serve apprenticeships any more. Kids expect to be paid and treated really well and all that guff before they've achieved anything. It doesn't work like that. You have to spend five or six years being relatively rubbish and put up with it. For that you don't deserve to be getting lottery money.
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.
athlete games firsts
I have the mentality of a winner. I first went to the Olympic Games when I was 17, three weeks after my O-levels, and I remember sitting in a dining-hall filled with the world's best athletes.