33 Facts About Daley Thompson

Daley Thompson won the decathlon gold medal at the Olympic Games in 1980 and 1984, and broke the world record for the event four times.

Daley Thompson was born in Notting Hill, London, the second son of a British Nigerian father, Frank Daley Thompson, who ran a minicab firm, and Scottish mother, Lydia, from Dundee.

When Daley Thompson was eleven or twelve, his father was shot dead in Streatham by the husband of a woman whom the father and a friend had dropped off.

Daley Thompson's forename is a contraction of Ayodele, a Yoruba word meaning "joy comes home".

Daley Thompson began to be coached by Bob Mortimer, who suggested he try out for the decathlon because one of his decathletes had chickenpox.

Daley Thompson competed in his first decathlon later that year in Cwmbran, Wales, which he won along with his next competition.

Daley Thompson opened the 1980 Olympic season with a world decathlon record of 8,648 points at Gotzis, Austria, in May, and followed this by winning gold at the Moscow Olympics.

In 1983, Daley Thompson won the inaugural World Championships and became the first decathlete to hold a continental title, in his case the European title and the World and Olympic titles simultaneously.

Daley Thompson became by virtue of his World title, the first athlete in any athletics event to hold Olympic, World, continental and Commonwealth Games titles in a single event simultaneously.

Daley Thompson spent much of the summer of 1984 in California preparing for the defence of his Olympic title, with Jurgen Hingsen, the West German who had succeeded Daley Thompson as the world record holder, expected to be a major threat.

Daley Thompson took the lead in the first event, a lead he never relinquished throughout the competition.

Daley Thompson won his third Commonwealth title in 1986 and won another European Championship but after that he never quite recaptured the excellent form of earlier years.

Daley Thompson made the Commonwealth Games team for the fourth time in 1990 but was forced to withdraw because of injury.

Daley Thompson was well known for his appearances in commercials for the drink Lucozade in the 1980s.

Daley Thompson is a brand ambassador for a travel agency network "Not Just Travel".

Daley Thompson was forced to retire from athletics in 1992, due to a persistent hamstring injury.

Daley Thompson worked as fitness coach for Wimbledon FC and Luton Town football clubs.

Daley Thompson drove a Peugeot 106 in the 1993 National Saloon Car Cup.

Daley Thompson competed in the lowest class for up-to-1400cc cars and won his class at Thruxton.

Daley Thompson entered his Peugeot in the 1993 Willhire 24 Hour race.

Daley Thompson took part in the 1994 Ford Credit Fiesta Challenge Championship.

Daley Thompson worked as a fitness trainer and motivational speaker, as well as appearing at corporate events.

In 1994 Daley Thompson trained with Reading Football Club and scored in a friendly against Leatherhead.

Daley Thompson was an ambassador for the London 2012 Summer Olympics, focusing during the bid stage on highlighting the benefits that hosting the Olympics would bring to education and sport in schools.

Daley Thompson took part in the 2011 TV series Jamie's Dream School.

In 2015, Thompson opened his own gym, Daley Fitness, located on Upper Richmond Road in London.

Daley Thompson was a natural showman who endeared himself to the British public with his irreverent personality and anti-establishment attitude.

Daley Thompson won the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award in 1982, was appointed an MBE in the 1983 New Year Honours and promoted to the CBE in the 2000 New Year Honours.

In 2012, Daley Thompson was accused of anti-Irish sentiment after commenting on live BBC TV that the creator of a misspelled tattoo "must have been Irish".

In 2015, Daley Thompson co-presented the mid morning show on talkSPORT once a week alongside Colin Murray until Murray quit the station the following year.

Daley Thompson has two children with his girlfriend Lisa and three with ex-wife Tish.

Elliot Daley Thompson became the national decathlon champion at the 2022 British Athletics Championships.

The title was won 46 years after Daley Thompson claimed his first national title.