Daley Thompson quotes

Daley Thompson is a British former decathlete and one of the world's greatest athletics champions. For much of the 1980s, he dominated the decathlon, winning two Olympic gold medals and setting multiple world records. He is celebrated for his exceptional athleticism and charismatic personality. Here are 43 of his quotes:

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.

Daley Thompson

I'm competitive - that's what defines me - and I love it.

Daley Thompson

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.

Daley Thompson

What used to drive me was the fact that I wanted to be better than everybody at something. One of my best qualities is that I used whatever other people found to be an adverse thing to be a positive thing for myself.

Daley Thompson

If you work hard in real life, people tend to get in your way - either from inertia or prejudice - and they stop you achieving things. It's the worst thing about real life compared with sports, where you generally get what you deserve: if you're the fastest guy, you win; there are no other games being played.

Daley Thompson

Sometimes you have to resist working on your strengths in favour of your weaknesses. The decathlon requires a wide range of skills.

Daley Thompson

When I lost my decathlon world record I took it like a man. I only cried for ten hours.

Daley Thompson

Having the ambition of becoming Olympic champion is a whole different ambition from wanting to be the greatest.

Daley Thompson

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.

Daley Thompson

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.

Daley Thompson

Los Angeles was great fun because it was the polar opposite of Moscow in 1980. It was sunny and bright, lots of colours around, whereas Moscow was dark and oppressive.

Daley Thompson

Sport and health are so important to our nation that they deserve to be right at the front of people's minds.

Daley Thompson

In sport, if you want to be the best you have to compete against the best - I would much rather have come tenth and be judged against everyone than come first and be judged against just a few.

Daley Thompson

I am an education ambassador, mainly working with schools.

Daley Thompson

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.

Daley Thompson

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.

Daley Thompson

The decathlon takes so long to learn that people who are good athletes don't want to go back to the beginning again.

Daley Thompson

For kids it's natural to be competitive.

Daley Thompson

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.

Daley Thompson

I didn't even know what it was when I started. But I was lucky. I found it at 16. Most people don't discover decathlon until they're 21 or 22.

Daley Thompson

But if kids take up things like hockey and football they will go back to it.

Daley Thompson

Even if you've been involved in a World Cup, the Olympics is huge. Only the Games has the power to change communities.

Daley Thompson