Daley Thompson

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Daley Thompson
Gold
medal
1980
Moscow
Athletics
Men's decathlon
Gold
medal
1984
Los Angeles
Athletics
Men's decathlon

Francis Morgan "Daley" Thompson, born July 30th, 1958 in London, England, is a former British decathlete.

Thompson won consecutive gold medals at the 1980 and 1984 Olympic Games, and broke the world record for the event four times. His best score in the event was set in the 1984 Olympic competition at 8847 points, a world record that stood for nine years and an Olympic record that stood for 20 years until the Czech athlete Roman Sebrle scored 8893 points in the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. He competed for an unprecedented third Olympic decathlon gold at the 1988 Seoul games, but was severely hampered by injury and could only finish fourth. Thompson was the first athlete to simultaneously hold Olympic, Commonwealth, European and World titles in a single event.

His rivalry with German athlete Jürgen Hingsen was legendary in the sport throughout the 1980s. The pair consistently traded world records, but Thompson always had the upper hand in the major events, remaining undefeated in all competitions for nine years between 1979 and 1987.

He was a natural showman who endeared himself to the British public with his irreverent personality, notably when he nervelessly whistled the British national anthem God Save The Queen after receiving his gold medal in 1984. Afterwards, he famously sent a message to friends back home via a TV interview by showing his medal and saying I've got the Big G, boys - the Big G!

Sometimes his behaviour caused offence, not least when he refused to carry the flag at the opening ceremony of the 1982 Commonwealth Games, claiming that the effort required participating in the four-and-a-half hour ceremony would reduce his chances of winning his event. Despite this, he was awarded the OBE in 1983.

Since retiring from athletics in 1992, Thompson has been associated with various football clubs and also had stints as a television presenter. However, he will always be remembered as one of the world's greatest ever athletes, who single-handedly transformed the decathlon from obscurity to an event of national and international interest.

Championship wins


Olympic medalists in athletics (men) | Olympic Champions in the All around, pentathlon, and decathlon
As all-around: Tom Kiely
As pentathlon: Hjalmer Mellander | Jim Thorpe | Eero Lehtonen (twice)
As decathlon: Jim Thorpe | Helge Løvland | Harold Osborn | Paavo Yrjölä | Jim Bausch | Glenn Morris | Bob Mathias (twice) | Milt Campbell | Rafer Johnson | Willi Holdorf | Bill Toomey | Nikolay Avilov | Bruce Jenner | Daley Thompson (twice) | Christian Schenk | Robert Změlík | Dan O'Brien | Erki Nool | Roman Šebrle


Olympic medalists in athletics (men) | Post-war British Olympic champions in men's athletics
1956 Chris Brasher (3000 m steeplechase) | 1960 Don Thompson (50 km walk) | 1964 Ken Matthews (20 km walk) | 1964 Lynn Davies (long jump) 1968 David Hemery (400 m hurdles) 1980: Allan Wells (100 m) | 1980 Steve Ovett (800 m) | 1980 & 1984 Sebastian Coe (1500 m) | 1980 & 1984 Daley Thompson (decathlon) | 1992 Linford Christie (100 m) | 2000 Jonathan Edwards (triple jump) | 2004 Jason Gardener, Darren Campbell, Marlon Devonish & Mark Lewis-Francis (4 x 100 m relay)


Preceded by:
Ian Botham
BBC Sports Personality of the Year
1982
Succeeded by:
Steve Cram
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