Full Name: Francis Morgan Thompson
Date of Birth: 30 th July, 1958
Country: The United Kingdom
Sport involved in: Athletics—Decathlon
Achievements made:
Winner of gold medal in the decathlon event at the 1978 Edmonton Commonwealth Games
• Silver medalist in the decathlon event at the 1978 Prague European Championships
• Gold medalist in the decathlon event at the 1980 Moscow Summer Games
• Winner of gold medal in the decathlon event at the 1982 Athens European Championships
Gold medalist in the decathlon event at the 1982 Brisbane Commonwealth Games
• World Champion in decathlon in 1983
- Honored with the “Officer of the Order of the British Empire” (OBE) in 1983
• Winner of gold medal in the decathlon event at the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Games
• Gold medal winner in the decathlon event at the 1986 Stuttgart European Championships
- Winner of gold medal in the decathlon event at the 1986 Edinburgh Commonwealth Games
- Silver medalist in the 4x100 meter relay event at the 1986 Edinburgh Commonwealth Games
• Honored with the “Commander of the Order of the British Empire” (CBE) in 2000
Career: Daley Thompson is considered to be one of the greatest decathlete in the world. He was undefeated in all decathlon competitions for a long period of nine years between 1979 and 1987. Thompson won his first international gold medal in the decathlon event at the 1978 Commonwealth Games. Since then, he had won two more Commonwealth gold medals in the event in 1982 and 1986. In the 1986 Commonwealth Games, Thompson also won one silver medal in the 4x100 meter relay event. In the 1978 European Championships, he won silver medal in the decathlon competition. Thompson participated in the 1980 Moscow Summer Games . In the Games, he won his first Olympic gold medal in the event. He had also won the European Championships title twice in his athletic career. He won the titles in 1982 and 1986. In the 1983 World Championships, Thompson won his only world Championships title in the event. In the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Games , he successfully defended his Olympic title in the event. In the 1984 Games, Thompson set world record in the event with 8847 points. Thompson was the first athlete to win the Olympic, the Commonwealth, the European and the World titles in the same event in simultaneous occasion. He participated in the 1988 Seoul Summer Games. However, this time he could not make it to the podium. The great decathlete retired from the sport in 1992.
Performance at the Olympics: Daley Thompson's first Olympic appearance was in the 1976 Montreal Summer Games. In the Games, the 18 years old Thompson finished 18th in the decathlon competition. In the 1980 Moscow Summer Games, he won his first Olympic gold medal in the decathlon event. In his third Olympics in the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Games , Thompson won his second gold medal in the event. This time, he had a tough competition with his rival, Jurgen Hingsen of West Germany. In the first seven events included in the decathlon competition, the results were neck to neck. However, in the pole vault and javelin events, Thompson scored more than Hingsen and secured his second Olympic title in the event. In the final event of decathlon competition, the 1500 meter race, Thompson reached the finishing line in 4:35.00 seconds. Two years later, the IAAF officials discovered that he had finished the 110 meter hurdle in 14.33 seconds instead of 14.34 seconds. This discovery added one more point to Thompson's score in the Olympics and he was declared the holder of the world record.
