Daley: Olympic Superstar: warts-and-all documentary on iconic athlete

In 1983, when he took gold at the World Championships in Helsinki, he held all the major decathlon titles and was unbeaten in competition for nine years.

But despite his legendary status and his persona as a natural showman, Daley is rarely seen in the mainstream media these days, perhaps due to his reputation as being anti-establishment, sarcastic, or as one journalist once said, ‘hard to love’.

Francis Morgan Ayodélé Thompson was born on July 30, 1958, the second son of a British Nigerian father, Frank Thompson, who ran a minicab firm, and his Scottish mother Lydia. When Thompson was six, his father left home, and aged seven, Daley was sent to Farney Close Boarding School, Bolney, Sussex, which he described as “a place for troubled children”.

When Daley was 11 or 12, his father was shot dead in Streatham by the husband of a woman he had dropped off.

While Thompson’s first ambition was to become a professional footballer, he switched to athletics and become a member of Haywards Heath Harriers, before joining the Newham and Essex Beagles Athletics Club in 1975. He competed in his first decathlon later that year, and eventually went on to dominate the event for the next decade.

Thompson retired from athletics in 1992, but in the 1990s he played football for Mansfield Town, Stevenage and Ilkeston, and also worked as fitness coach for Wimbledon and Luton Town.

During his life, Daley has occasionally been the subject of controversy. After winning his second gold at the 1984 Olympics in LA, he was seen whistling along to the Great Britain national anthem and then wore a T-shirt that read “Is the world’s second greatest athlete gay?”

In 2012, he was accused of anti-Irish sentiment and has recently been outspoken on issues surrounding transgender athletes.

This new warts-and-all documentary, timed to coincide with the start of Paris Olympics next week and the 40th anniversary of the 1984 LA Games, promises to shed new light on his life and career.

Thompson, described by his coach Frank Dick as “the most competitive sporting animal I’ve ever come across”, travels the world and reveals the struggles he faced on the road to success.

There are contributions from his close friend and World Athletics president Lord Sebastian Coe, former decathlon rival Jurgen Hingsen and Caitlyn Jenner, who, as Bruce Jenner, won the 1976 Olympic decathlon crown and acted as a mentor to Thompson.

The film also shines a light on the momentous issues impacting on sport when Daley was competing, including racism, drugs, commercialisation and global political boycotts – many of which are still prevalent today.

“It took me a long time to realise I was an introvert living an extroverted life, and I’ve been fortunate to keep most of that life to myself,” Thompson says of the film.