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" 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. "

Daley Thompson

Drive

Best

Myself

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" Most people doing the decathlon these days are quite boring, so people don't relate to them. "

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" I wouldn't swap the era I competed in for anything, not a day of it. I started out as an amateur, and people like myself, Seb Coe, Steve Ovett, Steve Cram, Tessa Sanderson and the rest did it for the glory of winning medals for our country. "

" Sport fosters many things that are good; teamwork and leadership. "

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

Daley Thompson

Football

" There were only ever two black kids at my school. I never considered myself to be 'a black kid'. I was who I was. Which isn't to say things haven't happened to me that wouldn't have happened if I wasn't black. "

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Only

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

" In sport, if you want to be the best you have to compete against the best - I would much rather have come tenth and be judged against everyone than come first and be judged against just a few. "

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

Daley Thompson

Win

You

" Retiring was hard. I'd spent 15 years doing something I loved, but when you get older everything seems to go. When I started spending too long with the physio and the doctor, I knew it was time to call it a day. But I had no preparation for being retired and I didn't know what to do. "

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

" Kids are starting at such a low base rate in terms of fitness that it's taking them years to catch up to where people like me started from. Every little bit is making it more difficult for kids to succeed on a world stage. "

Daley Thompson

People

World

" 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

" I'm competitive - that's what defines me - and I love it. "

Daley Thompson

Competitive

Love

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

" Sometimes you have to resist working on your strengths in favour of your weaknesses. The decathlon requires a wide range of skills. "

" 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. "

" 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. "