Olympic Track & Field Codexery

Daley Thompson

The world's greatest all-round athlete.

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Francis Morgan Ayodélé Thompson, known as Daley Thompson, is an English former decathlete born on 30 July 1958 in Notting Hill, London.[1][2] Thompson secured Olympic decathlon gold in both 1980 and 1984, and on four separate occasions he set a new world record for the event.[3] From 1978 through 1987, a span of nine years, Thompson never lost a decathlon competition.[3]

Key facts and history

Thompson's father, Frank, left the family when Daley was six, and was shot dead when Daley was eleven or twelve.[2][4] He began his athletics career as a sprinter with Newham and Essex Beagles Athletics club in 1975.[5] Thompson won his first decathlon in Cwmbran, Wales, in 1976.[5][4] After one of his decathletes came down with chickenpox, Bob Mortimer, who was coaching Thompson, recommended that he give the decathlon a try.[5]

In May 1980 at Götzis, Austria, Thompson achieved a world decathlon record of 8,648 points, and later that year he took the gold medal at the Moscow Olympics.[6] Only two American athletes, Bob Mathias and Ashton Eaton, have also won two Olympic decathlon gold medals, matching Thompson's achievement.[7] Throughout the 1980s, the public was highly interested in the rivalry between Thompson and West German Jürgen Hingsen.[3]

What the cited sources add

A 2008 Independent article notes that a Times reporter once described Thompson as "objectionable, charmless and rude"[8] The same article reports that Thompson, after winning gold in 1984, wore a shirt reading "Is the world's 2nd greatest athlete gay?" directed at Carl Lewis.[8][9] The Guardian interview states that Thompson has only coached two athletes: Erki Nool, Olympic decathlon champion in 2000, and Tamsyn Lewis, world indoor 800m gold medalist in 2008.[4] The Guardian also reports that Thompson applied for the role of performance director at UK Athletics in 2004 but did not make the shortlist.[4]

The same article quotes Reading striker Jimmy Quinn saying Thompson "could never realistically play at this level".[10] A 1994 Independent article reports that Thompson trained with Reading, under the supervision of manager Mark McGhee, while a documentary crew filmed him.[10]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Daley Thompson" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Daley Thompson", 100Great Black Britons, com (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Daley Thompson" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Sugar, "The Sports 100: A Ranking of the Greatest Athletes of All Time", Carol Publishing Group, 1997, p. 145; Chalmers, "The champion that time forgot: Why do we find it so hard to love Daley Thompson?", The Independent, 27 July 2008; Chalmers, "The champion that time forgot: Why do we find it so hard to love Daley Thompson?", The Independent, 27 July 2008; Chalmers, "The champion that time forgot: Why do we find it so hard to love Daley Thompson?", The Independent, 27 July 2008; Chalmers, "The champion that time forgot: Why do we find en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Daley Thompson" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Daley Thompson: 'I'd love to help British athletes. I'd be over the moon'", The Guardian (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  4. "Daley Thompson: 'I'd love to help British athletes. I'd be over the moon'", The Guardian. facts only, no text reused. theguardian.com
  5. Wikipedia, "Daley Thompson" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Daley Thompson - Olympic Superstar", 24 December 2024 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Daley Thompson" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Daley Thompson 1980 Olympics", twitter.com, 1980 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Daley Thompson" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "100 Greatest Sporting Moments – Results", Channel 4, 2002 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Chalmers, "The champion that time forgot: Why do we find it so hard to love Daley Thompson?", The Independent, 27 July 2008. facts only, no text reused. independent.co.uk
  9. Wikipedia, "Daley Thompson" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Geringer, "A Better Deal This Time? Carl Lewis hopes to add to his 1984 haul of four gold medals while shucking the image problems that reduced his market value", Sports Illustrated Vault (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  10. Brewer, "Daley Thompson", The Independent, 6 August 1994. facts only, no text reused. independent.co.uk

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Daley Thompson (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

Ranked in

Tallest Olympic athletes

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Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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