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Daley Thompson Quotes

Powerful Daley Thompson for Daily Growth

Kids have been let down by adults - we've tried to give them too much, we've tried not to impose discipline. We've tried to make their lives easier and, in doing so, we've taken something away from them. Kids like boundaries, they also like to be pushed, need to learn what failure is all about, need guidance.

- Daley Thompson

Doing, Away, Been, Impose

When I lost my decathlon world record I took it like a man. I only cried for ten hours.

- Daley Thompson

Like, Hours, Took, World Record

I am an education ambassador, mainly working with schools.

- Daley Thompson

Education, I Am, Schools, Ambassador

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

Polar, Oppressive, Angeles, Great Fun

When you're walking into the stadium, you just say to yourself, 'the 100m is the same anywhere, the shot put is the same weight anywhere.'

- Daley Thompson

Say, Weight, Anywhere, Stadium

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

Fact, Other, Everybody, Positive Thing

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

Other, Guy, About, Inertia

It's good to be difficult to know. Too many people are too easy to know.

- Daley Thompson

Know, Difficult, Too, Too Many People

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

Rest, Bit, Am, Junk Food

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

World, Years, Bit, Base

Being a decathlete is like having ten girlfriends. You have to love them all, and you can't afford losing one.

- Daley Thompson

Love, Like, Having, Girlfriends

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

Career, Champions, Other, Robotic

There are lots of women tennis players, for instance, but because not many of them seem to have much personality, they're interchangeable. You don't have a feeling about them.

- Daley Thompson

Tennis Players, Instance, Interchangeable

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

Think, Always, Been, Athletics

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

Regret, Career, Projects, Athletics

Even if you've been involved in a World Cup, the Olympics is huge. Only the Games has the power to change communities.

- Daley Thompson

Change, World Cup, Been, Communities

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

I Remember, Olympic, Weeks, Sitting

Most people doing the decathlon these days are quite boring, so people don't relate to them.

- Daley Thompson

People, Doing, Them, Decathlon

Sometimes you have to resist working on your strengths in favour of your weaknesses. The decathlon requires a wide range of skills.

- Daley Thompson

Sometimes, Wide Range, Wide, Decathlon

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

Lucky, Discover, Started, Decathlon

The decathlon takes so long to learn that people who are good athletes don't want to go back to the beginning again.

- Daley Thompson

Beginning, Learn, Want, Decathlon

I've still got a small fitness and conditioning business where I travel round the world doing stuff for individuals and corporations, mainly fitness training.

- Daley Thompson

Small, Doing, Still, Corporations

Ever since I was a kid, whatever situation I was presented with, I always made the most of it.

- Daley Thompson

Always, Most, Ever, Presented

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

Doing, Used, Whole, Sprinter

Having the ambition of becoming Olympic champion is a whole different ambition from wanting to be the greatest.

- Daley Thompson

Wanting, Olympic, Having, Champion

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

Mental, More, Olympic, Champion

People don't want to serve apprenticeships any more. Kids expect to be paid and treated really well and all that guff before they've achieved anything. It doesn't work like that. You have to spend five or six years being relatively rubbish and put up with it. For that you don't deserve to be getting lottery money.

- Daley Thompson

Serve, Years, Before, Relatively

Sport fosters many things that are good; teamwork and leadership.

- Daley Thompson

Leadership, Teamwork, Things, Fosters

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

Doing, Years, Had, Retired

I did not want to be the best black man of the year; I wanted to be the best man of the year.

- Daley Thompson

Want, Year, Wanted, Best Man

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