BBC programme about the iconic British decathlete is a must-watch for athletics fans young and old
The stylish and much-hyped Netflix series ‘Sprint’ has attracted much attention in recent weeks, but when it comes to track and field documentaries Daley: Olympic Superstar is this summer’s quiet hit.
The life story of the two-time Olympic decathlon champion was tucked away on BBC2 this month but has enjoyed rave reviews from those who have seen it. Unlike the Netflix series, it is a rugged tale of a bona fide athletics legend which is long overdue being made.
The documentary mixes beautiful archive footage with contemporary interviews with not only Thompson, who turns 66 this month, but Caitlyn Jenner (formerly Bruce, the 1976 Olympic champion), Seb Coe, Steve Cram, Tessa Sanderson, Denise Lewis, Linford Christie, Colin Jackson, Frank Dick, his early coach Bob Mortimer, swimmer and ex-girlfriend Sharron Davies and, maybe best of all, his giant adversary Jürgen Hingsen. “I don’t think I would have trained as hard if I didn’t have him,” says Thompson on his big German rival.
Since the programme aired, Coe even admits he learned a few things in the documentary about Thompson despite being a close friend and regular training partner in the gym for half a century.
Thompson talks openly in the documentary about his rogue of a father who was shot dead when he was a youngster. His mother, meanwhile, didn’t come to watch any of his athletics competitions until 1986. “Isn’t that strange?” he asks, in one of several moments of raw reflection.
Thompson visits the working class Notting Hill area he grew up in and chats to a lifelong friend from his childhood. There are nostalgic scenes of him training and competing as a teenager – surviving on hand-outs and living in a council flat in his early years – and you get a sense of the kind of grit, determination and unwavering belief in himself that he possessed to become the world’s greatest all-round sportsman in the 1980s.
Daley Thompson (BBC)
Jenner, for example, tells an amusing story about the 1976 Montreal Olympics when he won gold and Thompson finished 18th on his 18th birthday. “Daley wouldn’t stop talking,” remembers Jenner. “I’m in the middle of trying to win the Games and he just kept asking me questions.”
Jenner adds: “After I won, some media guy asked me who would win next time and I said ‘his name is Daley Thompson because he’s hungry and he wants to learn’.”
Such was his athleticism, a recent poll in AW judged him Britain’s greatest every Olympian. As well as his Olympic titles, of course, he won the world title in 1983, two European golds, three Commonwealth crowns and set world records to boot.
Thompson was incredibly competitive and the ultimate alpha male in an athletics arena. This is perhaps best illustrated when he reveals that he didn’t want his friend Coe to successfully defend his Olympic 1500m title in 1984 as it would detract slightly from his own achievement of winning decathlon gold in 1980 and 1984.
No topics are off limits. He is asked about his controversial t-shirt worn at the 1984 Olympics which asked if the world’s second greatest athlete was gay – a jibe blatantly aimed at Carl Lewis. Similarly, the documentary tackles his controversial whistling on the podium in LA and his accidental swearing on the BBC sports personality show. Largely in each case, he comes across as a regretful figure who wishes some of the incidents hadn’t happened. He didn’t mean to offend anyone, he says, but at the same time doesn’t give the impression he’s lost much sleep over them in the years since they happened.
Frank Dick and Daley Thompson (Mark Shearman)
Thompson has a reputation for being prickly with media and there are plenty of horror stories in the sport. “At times he was obnoxious and seemed to have a chip on both shoulders,” says long-time Sun journalist Colin Hart. One of the mildest examples is that he would mischievously challenge journalists to list the 10 events of the decathlon, in order, before granting them an interview.
While I wasn’t faced with that question, I’ve spoken to him a few times over the years and he’s always been pleasant. Indeed, when the wind is blowing in the right direction there are surely few athletes who are so charming.
Maybe Thompson has mellowed over the years. “It took him to 65 to grow up,” says Davies, “but there you go.”
He admits in the documentary that he wasn’t the best father to his children during their early years and regrets getting divorced. “It was probably a mistake,” he says, “as I was going through a period when I wasn’t too happy.”
But there are also heart-warming clips of him accompanying his son, Elliot, to decathlon competitions, which include winning the British title in 2022. Thompson also reveals he discovered his mum had kept “a shrine” of athletics memorabilia despite barely watching him compete in person.
“If people are going to remember me,” he says, “I’d like to think that I always gave my best and am the father of five wonderful children,” before adding with a grin: “And an incredible decathlete.”
Daley Thompson (Mark Shearman)
There are some gaps in the programme. I would have liked to have seen footage of him winning the inaugural world title in Helsinki, for example. But I am splitting hairs as obviously not everything can be included in a 90-minute programme that is otherwise tightly edited.
Fans of 1980s nostalgia, will enjoy seeing a cameo from Superstars plus the vintage computer game that bears his name. “There’s not a day since 1984 when someone doesn’t come up to me wanting to talk about the game,” he says. “I wish I’d had a pound for every person who’d used it.”
Thompson’s injury struggles in the twilight of his career and subsequent dalliance with football are also covered. “I was having loads of fun,” Thompson says about football, “but it wasn’t ‘being the best in the world’ kind of fun.”
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The best part is perhaps at the end when he revisits the Coliseum in Los Angeles and meetings Hingsen. The inevitable trash talk ensues but it is good natured and tongue-in-cheek. “I feel happy when I see him,” Hingsen smiles, as the pair reminisce on their titanic battles of yesteryear. “He’s my better half. That’s my Daley, that’s my friend.”
When it comes to a verdict on an inspirational documentary about the world’s greatest decathlete, what other score can I offer than 10 out of 10?
Daley: Olympic Superstar is available on iPlayer here
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