Daley Thompson (born 1958) was one of the best decathlon athletes in history. He began competing in the decathlon in 1975 and won every event he entered from 1978 until 1988. Thompson won gold medals at the 1980 and 1984 Olympic Games.

Daley Thompson was born Francis Ayodele Thompson in London, the son of a Nigerian cab driver and a Scottish mother. His father gave him the African name Ayodele, but this was later shortened to Dele, and then to Daley, the name the world would come to know him by.

Even in childhood, he wanted to win. Cordner Nelson wrote in Track's Greatest Champions that Daley said, "I just had to be first at everything, from catching the bus to finishing my lunch." And his brother agreed, "Sport was life and death to Daley." Thompson's parents divorced when he was seven. Because his mother had to work, he was sent to boarding school...