Daley Thompson - Early Life and Education

Early Life and Education

Thompson was born in Notting Hill, London, the second son of a Nigerian father and Scottish mother. His father was a taxi driver who was shot dead in Streatham when Thompson was about twelve. At seven years old Thompson was sent to Farney Close Boarding School, Bolney, Sussex, which he described as "a place for troubled children". Thompson's name is a contraction of Ayodele, a Yoruba word meaning "joy comes home". Thompson's first ambition was to become a professional footballer, but he later switched his interests to athletics.

Read more about this topic:  Daley Thompson

Famous quotes containing the words early, life and/or education:

    “Make-believe is the avenue to much of the young child’s early understanding. He sorts out impressions and tries out ideas that are foundational to his later realistic comprehension. This private world sometimes is a quiet, solitary
    world. More often it is a noisy, busy, crowded place where language grows, and social skills develop, and where perseverance and attention-span expand.”
    —James L. Hymes, Jr. (20th century)

    “He has not learned the lesson of life who does not every day surmount a fear.”
    —Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    “Shakespeare, with an improved education and in a more enlightened age, might easily have attained the purity and correction of Racine; but nothing leads one to suppose that Racine in a barbarous age would have attained the grandeur, force and nature of Shakespeare.”
    —Horace Walpole (1717–1797)