{"id":265520,"date":"2026-10-02T12:00:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T12:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/02\/daley-thompson-i-was-happy-to-sleep-on-floors-to-do-what-i-was-doing-you-know-you-have-to-earn-it\/"},"modified":"2026-10-02T12:00:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T12:00:08","slug":"daley-thompson-i-was-happy-to-sleep-on-floors-to-do-what-i-was-doing-you-know-you-have-to-earn-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/02\/daley-thompson-i-was-happy-to-sleep-on-floors-to-do-what-i-was-doing-you-know-you-have-to-earn-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Daley Thompson: \u2018I was happy to sleep on floors to do what I was doing. You know you have to earn it\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\n

\u2018W<\/span>hen you\u2019re a kid, you think you can be Superman,\u201d says Daley Thompson, as he gazes back to the era when he was track and field\u2019s ultimate man of steel. \u201cAs you grow up, life kind of knocks those edges off you. But that never happened to me. I\u2019ve always gone where I was aiming. I\u2019ve been the luckiest bloke in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Luckiest? Hardly. During the 1980s, Thompson powered to two Olympic decathlon gold medals, broke the world record four times and remained unbeaten for nine extraordinary years. Along the way, self-doubt, like his opponents, was conquered and vanquished. That wasn\u2019t luck, it was talent and unyielding willpower.<\/p>\n

Underpinning it all was a work ethic that made Stakhanov look like a slacker. Thompson trained 20 times a week. And, famously, when he heard that his great German rival J\u00fcrgen Hingsen trained on Christmas Day, he made sure he did two sessions.<\/p>\n

<\/figure>\n

Back then, millions of Britons regarded Thompson as the closest thing to a real-life superhero, voting him the BBC\u2019s Sports Personality of the Year in 1982 and revelling in his triumphs. So it remains an enduring mystery that \u2013 unlike Britain\u2019s only other three multi-event Olympic track and field champions, Dame Mary Peters, Dame Denise Lewis and Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill \u2013 Thompson\u2019s achievements were not rewarded with a knighthood.<\/p>\n

Does he ever wish he was Sir Daley? \u201cNot really,\u201d Thompson says. \u201cI mean, it would be lovely, and great for all the people that have helped me. But it\u2019s not going to change my life, honestly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why do you think you haven\u2019t got one? \u201cAbsolutely no idea,\u201d he replies. \u201cThose things for me are really nice to have but if they\u2019re not within your control, then why bother about them?\u201d<\/p>\n

That is an admirably phlegmatic reaction. But the long-standing suspicion is that the controversy that followed Thompson\u2019s brilliant second Olympic gold medal, in 1984, is to blame. Having whistled to the national anthem, he then wore a T-shirt to the press conference afterwards that asked \u201cIs the world\u2019s second greatest athlete gay?\u201d \u2013 an apparent reference to Carl Lewis \u2013 before joking that he would like to have Princess Anne\u2019s babies.<\/p>\n

Writing for the Guardian from Los Angeles, Charlie Burgess began his report with seven words that proved prescient. \u201cBang goes Daley Thompson\u2019s chance of a knighthood.\u201d The backlash was such that the Royal Family even released an official statement saying that it was \u201cabsurd\u201d to think Princess Anne, then the president of the British Olympic Association, had been upset.<\/p>\n

<\/svg><\/span>Daley Thompson, Britain\u2019s greatest ever male athlete?<\/span> Composite: Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

These were different times, we suggest to Thompson, as he mulls over his decision to wear that T-shirt. He nods. \u201cWould I do it now? That is the question,\u201d he replies, before answering it himself. \u201cNo, of course I wouldn\u2019t. But you\u2019re right, absolutely different times.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thompson also reiterates that Princess Anne didn\u2019t mind his joke either. \u201cThe thing was she wasn\u2019t offended. She was fine with it. It\u2019s a faux outrage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet there is still time for the honours\u2019 committee to think again, given Thompson\u2019s remarkable accomplishments and love of his country. And, as a powerful documentary of his life made clear two years ago, it came despite a tough upbringing.<\/p>\n