Quote

I was in the doldrums for a while after my athletics career ended in 1992. I spent six to eight hours a day training, for 18 years, and it took a long time to get over the regret that I wasn't competing in major championships any more. All I ever wanted to be was the best. But I find new projects and I keep things in perspective.

Daley Thompson

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Daley Thompson
Age: 66
Born: 1958
Born: July 30
Athletics Competitor
Olympic Athlete
London
England
Ever
Career
Majors
Wanted
Careers
Major
Doldrums
Long
Took
Spent
Championships
Years
Wasn
Eight
Athletics
Things
Hours
Regret
Championship
Time
Keep
Projects
Competing
Best
Perspective
Ended
Find
Training
Six

More quotes by Daley Thompson

Image
I am only about winning and getting better.
Daley Thompson
Image
I'm obsessive. I want to know the answer to how good I am. Most people aren't.
Daley Thompson
Image
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
Image
Sport and health are so important to our nation that they deserve to be right at the front of people's minds.
Daley Thompson
Image
The only limitations are mental. The guy who thinks positively will win.
Daley Thompson
Image
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
Image
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
Image
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
Image
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
Image
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
Image
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
Image
We crave instant success these days. If you are a really good sprinter and long jumper, you don't want to spend two or three years on a whole new set of events. You're used to doing well and it's difficult to give that up.
Daley Thompson
Image
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.
Daley Thompson
Image
Kids are starting at such a low base rate in terms of fitness that it's taking them years to catch up to where people like me started from. Every little bit is making it more difficult for kids to succeed on a world stage.
Daley Thompson
Image
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
Image
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.
Daley Thompson
Image
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
Image
During a photo-call with fellow Olympic gold medallist Duncan Goodhew- Pity Steve Ovett didn't show up. Then we could have had the good, the bald and the ugly.
Daley Thompson
Image
Retiring was hard. I'd spent 15 years doing something I loved, but when you get older everything seems to go. When I started spending too long with the physio and the doctor, I knew it was time to call it a day. But I had no preparation for being retired and I didn't know what to do.
Daley Thompson
Image
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