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" 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

World

Three

Winner

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" 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. "

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Daley Thompson

People

World

" It's good to be difficult to know. Too many people are too easy to know. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" If you're not in it you can't win it. "

Daley Thompson

Win

You

" 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.' "

" 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. "

" When I lost my decathlon world record I took it like a man. I only cried for ten hours. "

Daley Thompson

World

Only

" But if kids take up things like hockey and football they will go back to it. "

Daley Thompson

Football

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" The stopwatch doesn't lie. The tape measure doesn't lie. "

" Sport and health are so important to our nation that they deserve to be right at the front of people's minds. "

" Being a decathlete is like having ten girlfriends. You have to love them all, and you can't afford losing one. "

Daley Thompson

You

Girlfriends