Don Thompson (athlete)

Donald James "Don" Thompson (born January 20, 1933 in Hillingdon , London , † October 4, 2006 in Frimley , Surrey ) was a British athlete and Olympic champion .

When he first participated in the XVI. At the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne , he was in 5th place in the 20 km walk 5000 meters from the finish when his circulation collapsed because he was not used to these high temperatures, unlike those in his hometown. He therefore prepared for the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome with special training. In addition to his normal street training, he invented additional training for himself: Thompson regularly heated up his bathroom and filled it with steam, so he almost had a sauna, and did his endurance training.

So well prepared, he started the 50 km walk at the Olympic Games in Rome with an outside temperature of 30 degrees and high humidity , which he completed with the gold medal and 17 seconds ahead of the favorite Swede John Ljunggren (silver) and the Italian Abdon Pamich (bronze). At the XVIII. At the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo , he started in the same discipline, but only reached 10th place. At the European Championships in Belgrade in 1962 , he won the bronze medal.

In 1990, at the age of 57, he ran his personal best over 50 km and was in 5th place on the British best list. In the same year he also took part in the annual 100-mile walk , which he achieved with a respectable 2nd place completed in a time of 19:58:29 h.

With a height of 1.68 m, his competition weight was 58 kg.

Web links

• Don Thompson in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )