Quotes by Daley Thompson - Page 1 | QuoteForever

A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z

I don't even have my own computer.
Daley Thompson / Olympic Athlete
Computer
My Own
Copy Quote
For kids it's natural to be competitive.
Daley Thompson / Olympic Athlete
Kids
Natural
Competitive
Copy Quote
I am only about winning and getting better.
Daley Thompson / Olympic Athlete
Get Better
Winning
Getting Better
Copy Quote
The stopwatch doesn't lie. The tape measure doesn't lie.
Daley Thompson / Olympic Athlete
Lying
Tape
Lie
Measure
Copy Quote
I'm competitive - that's what defines me - and I love it.
Daley Thompson / Olympic Athlete
Love Me I Love
Competitive
Copy Quote
I am an education ambassador, mainly working with schools.
Daley Thompson / Olympic Athlete
Ambassadors
School
Ambassador
Mainly
Schools
Copy Quote
Sport fosters many things that are good; teamwork and leadership.
Daley Thompson / Olympic Athlete
Leadership
Sports
Good Team
Teamwork
Sport
Fosters
Copy Quote
If you don't want to grow old, then slow down the slowing down process.
Daley Thompson / Olympic Athlete
Leadership
Slow Down
Want
Copy Quote
The only limitations are mental. The guy who thinks positively will win.
Daley Thompson / Olympic Athlete
Guy
Thinking
Winning
Copy Quote
It's good to be difficult to know. Too many people are too easy to know.
Daley Thompson / Olympic Athlete
Difficult
Easy
People
Good People Know
Good Difficult People
Too Many People
Copy Quote
But if kids take up things like hockey and football they will go back to it.
Daley Thompson / Olympic Athlete
Kids
Football
Hockey
Copy Quote
I'm obsessive. I want to know the answer to how good I am. Most people aren't.
Daley Thompson / Olympic Athlete
Answers
Obsessive
People
Want
Good I Am People
Copy Quote
When I lost my decathlon world record I took it like a man. I only cried for ten hours.
Daley Thompson / Olympic Athlete
Funny
Inspirational
Men
Cried
Decathlon
Ten
Man World Lost
World Record
Copy Quote
Most people doing the decathlon these days are quite boring, so people don't relate to them.
Daley Thompson / Olympic Athlete
Boring
Decathlon
People
Relate
These Days
Copy Quote
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 / Olympic Athlete
Men
Black
Years
Best Man
Copy Quote
Ever since I was a kid, whatever situation I was presented with, I always made the most of it.
Daley Thompson / Olympic Athlete
Kids
Made
Situation
Presented
Copy Quote
Sport and health are so important to our nation that they deserve to be right at the front of people's minds.
Daley Thompson / Olympic Athlete
Sports
Deserve
Mind
People
Health People Important
Minds
Copy Quote
Being a decathlete is like having ten girlfriends. You have to love them all, and you can't afford losing one.
Daley Thompson / Olympic Athlete
Funny
Inspirational
Girlfriend
Losing
Ten
Afford
Love Being Like
Girlfriends
To Love
Copy Quote
Having the ambition of becoming Olympic champion is a whole different ambition from wanting to be the greatest.
Daley Thompson / Olympic Athlete
Ambition
Becoming
Champion
Different
Olympic
Wanting
Copy Quote
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 / Olympic Athlete
Athlete
Decathlon
Long
People
Good Long People
Athletes
Copy Quote
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 / Olympic Athlete
Community
Games
Olympics
World
World Cup
Change Power World
Communities
Cup
Copy Quote
Sometimes you have to resist working on your strengths in favour of your weaknesses. The decathlon requires a wide range of skills.
Daley Thompson / Olympic Athlete
Decathlon
Favour
Range
Skills
Weakness
Wide
Working
Requires
Strengths
Wide Range
Copy Quote
People tend to like an athlete's performance, but if you don't get a feeling for the individual, you're not very emotive about them.
Daley Thompson / Olympic Athlete
Athlete
Feelings
People
Emotive
Copy Quote
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 / Olympic Athlete
Athletics
Heart
Motivation
Thinking
Best Always Heart
Hearts
Copy Quote
When we stage the Olympics it will inspire kids all over the country. A kid in Scotland or Ireland will be encouraged to take up sport.
Daley Thompson / Olympic Athlete
Motivational
Sports
Country
Copy Quote
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 / Olympic Athlete
Shots
Stadiums
Weight
Stadium
Copy Quote
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 / Olympic Athlete
Decathlon
Found
Lucky
People
Discover
Copy Quote
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 / Olympic Athlete
Application
Champion
Forethought
Mental
Olympic
Copy Quote
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 / Olympic Athlete
Fitness
Travel
Conditioning
Corporations
Training
World
Round
Individuals
Mainly
Copy Quote
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 / Olympic Athlete
Funny
Inspirational
Gold
Copy Quote
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 / Olympic Athlete
Kids
Avoiding
Junk
Junk Food
Vegetables
Slack
Copy Quote
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 / Olympic Athlete
Dark
Fun
Los Angeles
Moscow
Opposites
Sunny
Opposite
Angeles
Bright
Colours
Great Fun
Los
Oppressive
Polar
Whereas
Copy Quote
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 / Olympic Athlete
Instance
Personality
Player
Tennis
Interchangeable
Tennis Players
Copy Quote
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 / Olympic Athlete
Amusing
Athlete
Careers
Differentiate
Emotion
Filled
People
Myself People See
Athletes
Champions
Performance
Robotic
Tried
Copy Quote
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 / Olympic Athlete
Athlete
Dining
Filled
Games
Mentality
Olympic Games
Athletes
Best World Remember
Olympic
Copy Quote
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 / Olympic Athlete
Sports
Firsts
Judged
Want
Against
Everyone
Compete
Sport
Few
Rather
Tenth
Copy Quote
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 / Olympic Athlete
Olympics
Thinking
Would Be
Years
Best Great World
Motivating
Copy Quote
There were only ever two black kids at my school. I never considered myself to be 'a black kid'. I was who I was. Which isn't to say things haven't happened to me that wouldn't have happened if I wasn't black.
Daley Thompson / Olympic Athlete
Kids
School
Two
Myself Me Black
Considered
Copy Quote
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 / Olympic Athlete
Quality
Adverse
Facts
People
Positive Best Myself
Positive Thing
Qualities
Copy Quote
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 / Olympic Athlete
Kids
Fitness
People
Rate
Starting
Succeed
Years
World Me People
Base
Catch
World Stage
Low
Copy Quote
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 / Olympic Athlete
Crave
Instant
Long
Two
Years
Sprinter
Copy Quote
I wouldn't swap the era I competed in for anything, not a day of it. I started out as an amateur, and people like myself, Seb Coe, Steve Ovett, Steve Cram, Tessa Sanderson and the rest did it for the glory of winning medals for our country.
Daley Thompson / Olympic Athlete
Glory
Myself Day People
Amateur
Cram
Medals
Steve
Swap
Copy Quote
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 / Olympic Athlete
Doctors
Long
Preparation
Retired
Retiring
Spending
Years
Doctor
Copy Quote
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 / Olympic Athlete
Failure
Boundaries
Discipline
Easier
Guidance
Let Down
Taken
Too Much
Adult
Impose
Tried
Copy Quote
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 / Olympic Athlete
Sports
Deserve
Hard Work
Inertia
Prejudice
Real
Real Life
Life Work Sports
Achieving
Fastest
Work Hard
Worst Thing
Copy Quote
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 / Olympic Athlete
Kids
Deserve
Lottery
People
Rubbish
Years
Achieved
Work Money People
Copy Quote
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 / Olympic Athlete
Jobs
Good Job
Recognise
Thinking
Unspoken
Years
Time Good Law
Coach
Passed
Copy 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 / Olympic Athlete
Athletics
Competing
Eight
New Projects
Perspective
Projects
Regret
Years
Championships
Best Time Long
Ended
Copy Quote

Related Olympic Athlete Authors

Zhang Jinjing
Olympic Athlete
Yohan Blake
Olympic Athlete
Tuesday, Dec 26, 1989
Yelena Isinbayeva
Olympic Athlete
Thursday, Jun 03, 1982
Xeno Muller
Olympic Athlete
Monday, Aug 07, 1972
Wyomia Tyus
Olympic Athlete
Wednesday, Aug 29, 1945
William Fritz
Olympic Athlete
Friday, Aug 14, 1914
Saturday, Oct 14, 1995
Vladimir Maksimov
Olympic Athlete
Sunday, Oct 14, 1945
Vitaly Scherbo
Olympic Athlete
Thursday, Jan 13, 1972
Vincent Matthews
Olympic Athlete
Tuesday, Dec 16, 1947
Veikko Karvonen
Olympic Athlete
Tuesday, Jan 05, 1926
Wednesday, Aug 01, 2007
Vasily Alekseyev
Olympic Athlete
Wednesday, Jan 07, 1942
Friday, Nov 25, 2011
Uta Pippig
Olympic Athlete
Tuesday, Sep 07, 1965
Usain Bolt
Olympic Athlete
Thursday, Aug 21, 1986
Troy Dumais
Olympic Athlete
Monday, Jan 21, 1980
Toshihiko Seko
Olympic Athlete
Sunday, Jul 15, 1956

View All Olympic Athlete Quotes

Top Authors

Voltaire
Writer
Sunday, Nov 21, 1694
Saturday, May 30, 1778
Jordan Peterson
Psychologist
Joe Biden
Vice President Of The United States
Friday, Nov 20, 1942
Edgar Allan Poe
Author
Thursday, Jan 19, 1809
Sunday, Oct 07, 1849
Groucho Marx
Comedian
Thursday, Oct 02, 1890
Friday, Aug 19, 1977
Khalil Gibran
Poet
Saturday, Jan 06, 1883
Friday, Apr 10, 1931
Oprah Winfrey
Media Proprietor
Friday, Jan 29, 1954
Henry Ford
Industrialist
Thursday, Jul 30, 1863
Monday, Apr 07, 1947
Winston Churchill
Former Prime Minister Of The United Kingdom
Monday, Nov 30, 1874
Sunday, Jan 24, 1965
Steven Wright
Comedian
Tuesday, Dec 06, 1955
John Keats
Poet
Saturday, Oct 31, 1795
Friday, Feb 23, 1821
Paulo Coelho
Lyricist
Sunday, Aug 24, 1947
George Bernard Shaw
Playwright
Saturday, Jul 26, 1856
Thursday, Nov 02, 1950
Aristotle
Philosopher
Thursday, Jan 01, 1970
Thursday, Jan 01, 1970
H. L. Mencken
Journalist
Sunday, Sep 12, 1880
Sunday, Jan 29, 1956

View All Authors

Share This Page