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…
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