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:
“In the early days of the world, the Almighty said to the first of our race “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread”; and since then, if we except the light and the air of heaven, no good thing has been, or can be enjoyed by us, without having first cost labour.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)
“There is a right according to which we may deprive a human being of his life but none according to which we may deprive him of his death: to do so is mere cruelty.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“One of the benefits of a college education is, to show the boy its little avail.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)