A01=Daley Thompson
athletics
Author_Daley Thompson
Category=DNBS1
decathlon
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
inspirational person
Olympic Games
perseverance
Product details
- ISBN 9781916556720
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 12 Apr 2025
- Publisher: Chiselbury Publishing
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Paperback
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DALEY Is the long-awaited autobiography of the life of double Olympic decathlon champion, Daley Thompson. Wearing his heart on his sleeve, he chronicles his legendary sporting achievements, but, for the first time, also reveals the personal struggles he faced to rise from the humblest of beginnings to become the ultimate Olympic Superstar, who then had to reconcile what he had become with his own humanity as a son and as a father.
At his sporting peak, Daley was a charismatic, uncompromising, anti-establishment superhero. That was the public persona the nation loved, and which inspired a generation of Britons to realise that a young Black man could be our hero. But the introvert Daley didn’t want to be ‘famous’ for anything other than his sporting achievements. He was, and remains, the antithesis of today’s social media obsessed ‘celebrity’. For him, the pure Olympian, it was only ever about the sport and the winning. Much as Daley may be cast as ‘unrelenting, invincible for ten years’, his sporting supremacy was a product of his singular willpower and courage. He is an invention of his own making, inherently human and born of an Olympian ideal that we all admire, yet with all the same flaws and frailties as the rest of us.
Now, for the first time, he tells his story, no punches pulled.
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. He was unbeaten in competition for nine years.
With a total of four world records, two Olympic gold medals, three Commonwealth titles, and wins in the World and European Championships, Thompson is considered by many to be the greatest decathlete of all time. He is also described by many commentators as the greatest all-round athlete the United Kingdom has ever produced.
