Daley Thompson

Daley Thompson
Daley Thompson, 2007
nation	United Kingdom
birthday	July 30, 1958
Career
discipline	Decathlon
Medal table
Olympic games gold 1980 Moscow Decathlon gold 1984 Los Angeles Decathlon  World championships gold 1983 Helsinki Decathlon  European championships silver 1978 Prague Decathlon gold 1982 Athens Decathlon gold 1986 Stuttgart Decathlon bronze 1986 Stuttgart Sprint relay  Commonwealth Games gold 1978 Edmonton Decathlon gold 1982 Brisbane Decathlon gold 1986 Edinburgh Decathlon silver 1986 Edinburgh Sprint relay

Daley Thompson (actually Francis Morgan Thompson ; born July 30, 1958 in Notting Hill , London ) is a former British decathlete . He won 19 of 37 decathlons in which he competed, was Olympic champion, world champion and European champion and was winner of the Commonwealth Games. From 1980 to 1986 he remained undefeated in the decathlon. In the course of his career he set four world records, the last of which could not be surpassed for eight years.

Career

The early years

Until 1976

Francis Morgan Thompson was born in London, the second son of a Nigerian and a Scot. His father called him Ayodele , which means something like joy comes home ; from this name his nickname Daley developed. Daley's father died when Daley was twelve years old, from then on Lydia Thompson had to take care of her two sons and daughter. Thompson's sporting talent showed up early on and he began playing football in the youth teams of Chelsea and Fulham . At school he was also known as a sprinter. The athletics coach Bob Mortimer from London club Haywards Heath Harriers became aware of the young sprinter and Thompson began special athletics training. His innate talent for movement revealed other possible uses in addition to the sprint. Mortimer showed his protégé to the all-around coach Bruce Longden and it was considered that one should sound out what Thompson could show as a decathlete. The trainers registered him for this test in June 1975 at the Welsh Open in Cwmbran . Daley Thompson had already practiced all disciplines in training, but some had never competed. On the other hand, the Welsh Open had an age limit from 18 years, an exception was made for the 16-year-old Thompson. On June 28 and 29, 1975 Daley Thompson completed his first decathlon and won with 6685 points (6523). In the course of 1975 Thompson was able to improve further in two further decathlons, both also held in Cwmbran. At the British Junior Championships on August 30 and 31, he won with 7008 points (6845). On October 4th and 5th, Thompson took part in an international match against France and finished second with 7100 points (6935).

Thompson also completed his fourth decathlon in Cwmbran, on May 22 and 23, 1976, he won the British championship there with 7684 points (7517), which he exceeded the Olympic standard of the British Federation by 34 points. On June 26th and 27th, Thompson competed abroad for the first time. In a match between countries in Copenhagen, he reached 10th place with 6639 points (6649) after he had shown three invalid attempts at the starting height in the pole vault, a Salto Nullo . Even so, he was nominated for the Montreal Olympics. With 7,434 points (7,330) he finished 18th in the Olympic decision on July 29th and 30th, and he celebrated his 18th birthday on the second day of the competition. After he had run the second fastest time of all participants in the 100-meter run with 10.79 s, he not only lagged behind his competitors, especially in the throwing disciplines, but also behind his own performance from May; After all, he managed to jump over the four-meter mark in the pole vault for the first time in a decathlon. The US Olympic champion from Montreal Bruce Jenner had set a new world record in the competition with 8,618 points, the West German Guido Kratschmer came second with 8,411 points. On September 4th and 5th, Thompson competed in the decathlon in Talence . There Alexander Grebenjuk from the Soviet Union won with the European record of 8468 points, Thompson reached fourth place with 7905 points (7742).

1977 to 1979

The 1977 season began for Thompson at the Götzis all-around meeting . With 7921 points (7856) he was able to increase his best performance from Talence again and finished third behind the Austrian Sepp Zeilbauer and the American Fred Dixon . On June 25th and 26th he competed in a match between Spain, Denmark and Italy in Madrid and won with 8190 points (8056). Thompson had exceeded the eight thousand point mark for the first time. On July 30 and 31, 1977, the semi-finals of the European Athletics Cup for all-rounders took place in Sittard . Thompson won with 8124 points (8082), the British team qualified for the final thanks to his performance, although the other two Britons Panayiotos Zeniou with 7256 points and Nick Phipps with 7054 points clearly lagged behind Thompson's performance. At the final in September, the British were eighth and last, as Thompson was not at the start; the appearance in Sittard should remain Thompson's only participation in the European Cup. Daley Thompson had completed his fourth decathlon of the season on August 19 and 20, when he won the title at the European Junior Championships in Donetsk with 7647 points (7568). Third place in this competition was Jürgen Hingsen from Krefeld, who Thompson would meet often in the further course of his career. At the Junior World Championships, Thompson also took fifth place in the long jump, after he had previously become national champion in the long jump.

In July 1978 Thompson was twenty years old, so 1978 was the first season in which Thompson's achievements were not counted as junior records. Thompson started again at the meeting in Götzis. On May 27th and 28th he reached 8,238 points (8226). He finished second behind Guido Kratschmer, who got 8,410 points. On August 7th and 8th, the decathlon took place at the Commonwealth Games in Edmonton . Thompson dominated the competition and won by over eight hundred points over the Australian Peter Hadfield . His 8467 points (8470) were over 1000 points better than the previous Commonwealth Games record. However, his long jump was supported by too much tailwind. Thompson and Kratschmer, who had increased the European record to 8498 points at the end of July, were in the favorite position for the European Championships in Prague . But Kratschmer injured himself in the first discipline on August 30th and was eliminated. Thompson led after the first day with 288 points, but crossed in the pole vault only 4.20 m against 4.80 m in Edmonton and was defeated by Alexander Grebenjuk with 51 points. Thompson's score of 8289 (8258) was enough for silver, ahead of Siegfried Stark from the GDR and ahead of Zeilbauer. The defeat against Grebenjuk was Thompson's last defeat until September 1987, apart from two broken decathlons. A decathlon that was broken off after a salto nullo in the pole vault on July 28 and 29 in Flein was Thompson's only one in 1979, but at least he won the national championship in the long jump.

The golden years

1980 to 1982

The annual meeting took place in Götzis on May 17th and 18th, 1980. After the first day, Thompson led with 4486 points, but was a little weaker than in Edmonton 1978 and Flein 1979. This time, Thompson was able to improve on his previous competitions on the second day, he jumped 4.90 m with the stick and threw the At 65.38 m, Speer is as far as ever in his career. Before the last competition, the 1,500-meter run, coach Bruce Longden calculated that 4:26 minutes would be enough to beat Bruce Jenner's world record. Thompson ran 4: 25.49 min and set his first world record with 8622 points (8648). Guido Kratschmer and Jürgen Hingsen were in second and third place, while Zeilbauer was fourth. Three days before the meeting in Götzis, the German NOK had decided to join the US Olympic boycott. Guido Kratschmer overcame at least part of his frustration by setting a new world record in Bernhausen in June with 8649 points (8667). Daley Thompson, on the other hand, was the clear favorite for the Moscow Olympics . On July 25th, Thompson took a clear lead in the first two disciplines and had reached 4542 points after five disciplines. On the rainy day that followed, he was able to confidently bring his Olympic victory to the finish. With 8495 points (8522) he was clearly ahead of the two athletes from the USSR, Yuri Kuzenko and Sergei Schelanow . With Georg Werthner and Sepp Zeilbauer, two Austrians followed in fourth and fifth place . In 1981 Thompson only took part in a decathlon and won the international match against Canada in Saskatoon with 7936 points (7798), although he did not finish the 1500-meter run.

On May 22 and 23, 1982, Thompson took part in the Götzis meeting. Two years after his first world record, he set new records in the shot put and 400-meter run on the very first day. Nobody had reached his 4620 points for the first day. He opened the second day with top performances in the hurdles and in the discus throw. In the javelin throw and in the 1500 meter run, good but not outstanding performances were enough for the new world record of 8704 points (8730). Jürgen Hingsen was second in Götzis with 8529 points, who increased the world record to 8723 points (8741) points in August. In the run-up to the European Championships in Athens , everything pointed to a duel between Thompson and Hingsen. With good, but not outstanding performances, Thompson presented in his strong disciplines sprint and long jump. Hingsen was only able to catch up in the high jump, but after the first day he was 114 points behind Thompson, who was leading with 4549 points. On the second day, Thompson demonstrated his strong nerves when, after two weak attempts with the discus in the third and last attempt, he increased his personal best by over a meter to 45.48 m. In the end, Thompson had regained the world record with 8743 points (8774) and with 226 points a comfortable lead over Jürgen Hingsen, who received bronze like Siegfried Stark in 1978. For Thompson, that wasn't the end of the season. The Commonwealth Games decathlon took place in Brisbane on October 4th and 5th . He won with 8410 points (8424) superior to the Canadian Dave Steen with 8004 points.

1983 to 1986

1983 Thompson took place on June 7 and 8 in the international match against Canada in Etobicoke . He won with 8509 points (8529) and jumped 5.10 m in the pole vault for the first time in a decathlon. The performance was not on the best list because of the strong tailwind in the hurdles. Immediately before the competition in Canada, Hingsen had improved the world record in Bernhausen to 8779 points (8825) and still won just ahead of Siegfried Wentz . This included the favorites for the World Championships in Helsinki . The decathlon was played on August 12th and 13th. Hingsen went into the competition very optimistically, but had basically already lost when he only managed 2.00 m in his strongest discipline, the high jump, while Thompson jumped 2.03 m. Thompson won with 8666 points (8714) and 105 points ahead of Hingsen and 188 points over Wentz, followed by Uwe Freimuth from the GDR in fourth .

In 1984 the Olympic Games were held in Los Angeles . The states of the Eastern Bloc except Romania boycotted the games, which particularly affected Uwe Freimuth in the decathlon. Thompson, who was the only British decathlete of rank, did not need to qualify, took part in a test in Los Angeles on May 23 and 24, achieved 7938 points (7806) after nine disciplines and did not take part in the 1500 meter run, which is why this decathlon is considered canceled. While most of the decathletes in the world would have been very happy about an achievement of 7938 points, because this achievement would have been enough to qualify for the Olympic Games, it was much more difficult for the German athletes to qualify. In Mannheim , an international match against Poland on the second weekend in June was named as a qualifying competition. Hingsen improved his world record to 8798 points (8832), behind him Wentz and Kratschmer qualified. Hingsen's third attempt to win the most important competition of the year as the reigning world record holder against Thompson was promoted accordingly by the press, but this did not significantly affect his self-confidence. In the competition, Thompson was, as usual, the best participant in the sprint and long jump. Hingsen caught up a little in the high jump with 2.12 m to 2.03 m, and Thompson was again the best in the 400-meter run. Thompson improved his own record for the first day to 4,633 points. He was 114 points ahead of Hingsen, followed by the other two Germans. After Hingsen was the fastest in the hurdles on the second day and threw over 50 meters in the discus, he was only 32 points behind. But when Hingsen reached only 4.50 m in the pole vault, while Thompson crossed five meters, the competition was decided, and after the javelin Thompson was safe enough in the lead to be able to stroll in the 1,500-meter run. He did this a little too extensively, because his score was determined with 8797 points (8846). Thompson had missed the world record according to the still valid table from 1962 by one point. In 1985 the new decathlon table was introduced, and Thompson replaced Hingsen as the world record holder by way of settlement. In 1986, after checking the target photos, Thompson's time in the 110-meter hurdle was corrected from 14.34 s to 14.33 s. So his winning points in Los Angeles was 8798 points, which meant setting the world record according to the 1962 table. According to the 1985 table, Thompson's record now stood at 8847 points. Dan O'Brien surpassed this record in September 1992. While Thompson became the sole world record holder by changing the table in 1985, he did not participate in any decathlon for the whole year.

It was not until May 17 and 18, 1986 that Thompson completed his first decathlon after his second Olympic victory. In Arles he won the international match against France with 8667 points. Immediately before the 1986 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, Thompson came under heavy criticism in the British press: The English team management had chosen Thompson to fly the flag at the opening ceremony on July 24th; Thompson refused because he felt impaired in his preparation for the July 27th and 28th decathlon. In the competition he was unmoved by the quarrels and won confidently with 8663 points ahead of Dave Steen, who was 490 points behind. In addition, Thompson was also used in the English sprint relay; in the line-up of Lincoln Asquith , Thompson, Mike McFarlane and Clarence Callender , the season crossed the finish line in 39.19 s, just four hundredths of a second behind the Canadians. Four weeks later, on August 27th and 28th, the decathlon took place at the European Championships in Stuttgart . The competition began as so often: Thompson took the lead in the first discipline with 10.26 seconds, Hingsen caught up in the high jump and after the first day Thompson was leading 4617 points ahead of Hingsen with 4589 points, followed by Torsten Voss from the GDR with 4570 points ahead of Siegfried Wentz with 4521 points. The decision was made once again in the pole vault, when Daley Thompson exceeded with 5.10 m Hingsen by 50 centimeters. In the end, Thompson won with 8811 points ahead of Hingsen with 8730 points, Wentz with 8676 points and Voss with 8450 points. Thompson achieved the second highest score of his career and in the end had a rather narrow lead. Like four weeks earlier in Edinburgh, Thompson also ran in Stuttgart in the British season. With the cast of Elliot Bunney , Thompson, McFarlane and Linford Christie , the season reached the finish line in 38.71 s as third behind the USSR and the GDR.

End of career

In the run-up to the 1987 World Championships in Rome, Thompson - like Hingsen - was plagued by injuries; it was unclear whether he would be back in full force in time. Thompson started at 10.67 seconds on September 3 and, while winning the first discipline, was clearly not in the shape of his big years. Already after the long jump, Torsten Voss was in first place and after the first day led in front of Christian Plaziat and Thompson, while Hingsen had given up after the high jump. On the second day, Siegfried Wentz passed Thompson in a hurdle sprint. Thompson visibly fought his way through the decathlon and after a javelin throw of 54.14 m he fell far behind. While Voss won ahead of Wentz, Thompson finished ninth with 8124 points, but gained sympathy due to his fighting spirit and non-surrender. Nine years and four days after the European Championships in Prague, Thompson was not the first to finish a decathlon.

On August 21 and 22, 1988, Thompson took part in a decathlon in the Westphalian location , but only took part in six disciplines. He was sufficiently satisfied with his fitness to compete in the Seoul Olympics . He started his fourth Olympic decathlon on September 28 with a discipline victory in 10.62 s over 100 meters. After a high jump of 2.27 m Christian Schenk from the GDR took the lead and in the end won with almost 100 points ahead of Torsten Voss; 22 points behind the Canadian Dave Steen, Thompson took fourth place with 8306 points. Thompson and the Austrian Georg Werthner were the first two decathletes to finish their fourth Olympic decathlon in 1988, with Werthner being the first, as he finished his decathlon ahead of Thompson as a faster 1,500 meter runner.

After Seoul Thompson competed six more decathletes, 1989 in Talence, 1991 three times and 1992 in Trondheim and London, but he didn't finish any of these decathlons. His task in the 100-meter run on July 11, 1992 was the last decathlon activity of his career. What was remarkable about this last start was that it was Thompson's only decathlon start in England. He had started his career in Cwmbran, Welsh, won the gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, Scotland, but had never competed in England before.

Thompson, who had a competition weight of 89 kg at a height of 1.84 m, started a total of 37 decathlons from 1975 to 1992 and completed 28. Of these 28 competitions, he won 19. He began his career with the Haywards Heath Harriers and then started almost his entire career for the Newham and Essex Beagles.

After the career

Daley Thompson was fortunate that he was at the height of his career when athletics officially became professional. He was allowed to be paid for advertising and still lives from the Daley Thompson brand today. He is available as an interview partner and moderator at sporting events, holds fitness courses and organizes motivational seminars. As a fitness trainer, he was also active at the football clubs FC Wimbledon and Luton Town .

Daley Thompson has three children from his first marriage and a son with his current partner.

UK decathlon

The British athletes were among the world's best in athletics for many years, but not in all-around competitions. In the very first Olympic decathlon, the Irishman Tom Kiely won in St. Louis in 1904 when Ireland was still part of the United Kingdom. But the development of the decathlon into an international competitive sport had been largely ignored by the British. It was not until 1966 that the decathlon was included in the program of the Commonwealth Games. The best international placement for a decathlete from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland was Peter Gabbett's sixth place at the 1971 European Championships . So Daley Thompson was the first world class British decathlete. In the 1990s, Dean Macey was also able to establish himself internationally.

Thompson and the media

Thompson's relationship with the British media in the early years was marked by the fact that the press ignored him because he wasn't a runner and that he didn't like the journalists because they couldn't do anything with the decathlon. When he set his first world record in Götzis in 1980, three British journalists were present, none of whom had previously reported on a decathlon. Athletics writer Bob Phillips said of Thompson: “He was a sensitive character. However, I have always got on well with him personally because I have been able to recite the ten disciplines of the decathlon in the correct order, which most British journalists could not. ”Thompson's difficult relationship with his home country is also reflected in this that he did not do a decathlon in England; Before his most important start on the island at the 1986 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, he messed with the British press because he did not want to act as the standard bearer at the opening ceremony.

Thompson's reputation on the European mainland and especially in the German-language press was completely different, where he was classified as an outstanding athlete from an early age. The two world records in 1980 and 1982 were not only Thompson's first world records, but also the first two world records at the Götzis all-around meeting and established the event's reputation as an all-around Mecca. In the Federal Republic of Germany, Thompson was recognized as the mostly superior opponent of the local decathletes for over a decade. In the first years of his career, Guido Kratschmer was his main competitor, although the two only met in top form at the world record in 1980 in Götzis. Thompson's Olympic victory in Moscow was perceived in Germany primarily as a missed opportunity for Guido Kratschmer. While the introverted Kratschmer was the big competitor in Thompson's early years, from 1982 the extroverted Jürgen Hingsen turned out to be a constant rival, who drove to the season's highlight as a favorite for years and assured himself and the media every time that he would be able to beat Thompson this time. Thompson but defeated Hingsen in four major championships and always proved to be the better competitor. In interviews, Thompson referred to his rival as a "Hollywood Hingsen", which on the one hand alluded to Hingsen's suntan that he had acquired in his wife's Californian homeland, but on the other hand also devalued Hingsen's demonstrative self-confidence as a show element.

Appreciation

After his European championship success in 1982 with a new world record, Thompson was named Sportsman of the Year in Great Britain and World Sportsman of the Year in Italy, and in Europe was named Sportsman of the Year and an MBE. In 1983 (or 1986) he was honored with the rank of Officer of the Order of the British Empire , and in 2000 he became Commander .

In 1999, the professional journal Leichtathletik asked the five experts Rolf von der Laage , Ekkehard zur Megede, Karl Adolf Scherer , Klaus Sigl and Otto Verhoeven for a list of the athletes of the century in each discipline. In the decathlon all experts decided on Daley Thompson, followed by Bob Mathias and Dan O'Brien .

In 2002, the Association of Track and Field Statisticans conducted a poll for the best decathlete of all time. Thompson won the vote with 94% of the votes cast and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2003.

The classification as the greatest decathlete is based on several factors. Thompson is the only decathlete to break the world record four times, and apart from him, only Bob Mathias has won two Olympic gold medals. Only Dan O'Brien and Roman Šebrle were dominant for a similar length of time, but in contrast to Thompson, neither of them have a flawless gold medal record over seven years.

His decathlon best of 8,847 points has so far (as of June 6, 2015) only been surpassed by the world record holders Ashton Eaton , Šebrle, Tomáš Dvořák and O'Brien. His best performance for the first day, which he set up with his world record in 1984 and which is 4677 points according to today's scoring, has so far been exceeded by six decathletes, with Dan O'Brien holding the best since 1994 with 4738 points. Thompson's best disciplines were always the 100-meter run and the long jump. In the 100-meter run, only Ashton Eaton and Chris Huffins were ever faster than Thompson in a decathlon above the 7,000 point mark. Even in the long jump, Thompson is still one of the ten strongest decathletes of all time. To date, only Ashton Eaton has been able to collect more points in an 8000-point decathlon with 3881 points in the four running disciplines than the 3728 points that Thompson achieved in Stuttgart in 1986.

In English-language sources, Thompson is often referred to as the first athlete to hold the title of Olympic gold medalist, world champion, European champion and winner of the Commonwealth Games in a single discipline. Since, apart from the four teams from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, only a few European countries such as Malta and Cyprus take part in the Commonwealth Games, this statement is reduced to the fact that Thompson was the first Briton in an individual Olympic sport to take part in all major championships without interruption won.

In 2013, Thompson was inducted into the IAAF Hall of Fame .

Best performance in the individual disciplines

discipline	Best performance	Year and place
100 m	10.26 s	1986 in Stuttgart
Long jump	8.01 m	1984 in Los Angeles
Shot put	16.10 m	1984 in Walnut
high jump	2.11 m	1980 in Götzis
400 m	46.86 s	1982 in Götzis
110 m hurdles	14.04 s	1986 in Stuttgart
Discus throw	49.10 m	1986 in Stanford
Pole vault	5.25 m	1986 in London
Javelin throw	65.38 m	1980 in Götzis
1500 m	4: 20.3 min	1976 in Cwmbran

literature

• general
  • Manfred Holzhausen: world records and world record holder. Decathlon. Grevenbroich 2004 (main source)
  • Hans van Kuijen: 1997 Annual Combined Events. Helmond 1998 (contains the individual results of all 37 decathlons that Daley Thompson started)
  • Peter Matthews (Ed.): Athletics 1992. Windsor 1992, ISBN 1-873057-11-3

• to individual championships
  • Klaus Amrhein / Axel Schäfer: 60 years of the European Athletics Championships. Groß-Zimmer / Bochum 1998
  • IAAF (Ed.): Statistics Handbook 8th IAAF World Championships in Athletics Edmonton 2001. Monaco 2001
  • Volker Kluge : Summer Olympic Games. The Chronicle III. Mexico City 1968 - Los Angeles 1984. Sportverlag Berlin, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-328-00741-5 .
  • Volker Kluge: Summer Olympic Games. Chronicle IV. Seoul 1988 - Atlanta 1996. Sportverlag Berlin, Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-328-00830-6 .
  • Bob Phillips: Honor of Empire. Glory of Sport - The History of Athletics at The Commonwealth Games. Manchester 2000, ISBN 1-903158-09-5

Web links

• Official website (English)
• Daley Thompson in the database of World Athletics (English)
• Athlete portrait on The Power of Ten

Footnotes

1. ↑ Biography on Geocities  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
2. ↑ The number of points in brackets corresponds to the number of points according to the point rating valid since 1985.
3. ↑ Holzhausen, page 93 f
4. ↑ Short Bio ( Memento of 17 August 2011 at the Internet Archive )
5. ↑ Holzhausen, page 75
6. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from September 23, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. as an example of a source citing 1983 
7. ↑ [1] as an example of a source that mentions 1986
8. ↑ Athletics Volume 44/1999, page 16
9. ↑ Athletics Issue 47/1999, page 17
10. ^ Peter Matthews: Athletics 2003 Cheltenham 2003 ISBN 1-899807-16-0 page 128
11. ↑ The IAAF's all-time best list
12. ↑ Hans van Kuijen: 2014 Annual Combined Events , page 73
13. ↑ Hans van Kuijen. 2014 Annual Combined Events , page 81
14. ↑ Hans van Kuijen. 2014 Annual Combined Events , page 85
15. ↑ or archive link ( Memento from November 5, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) as examples
16. ↑ In 1978 he jumped 8.11 m in Edmonton, but with an impermissible tail wind of 6.2 m / s (source: van Kuijen, 1997)
17. ↑ In 1982 he jumped 2.14 m in Amarillo, but in an indoor competition (source: van Kuijen, 1997)
18. ↑ The 1980 achievement was achieved with the old spear. Thompson's best distance with the new javelin was 64.04 m, which he threw in Seoul in 1988. (Source: van Kuijen, 1997)