Monday Morning Motivation – What Daley taught me

I’ve always liked Colin Jackson for being such a modest athlete – he seems like a genuinely nice guy.

In this short video and accompanying article, Jackson talks about how Daley Thompson (decathlete) was a great influence on his sporting career:

Meeting Daley Thompson at a Crystal Palace event was a major turning point. “I was 17 and competing as a sprinter,” he says. “Daley was there participating and coaching. We were chatting and I noticed his incredible black running spikes.

“I asked him where he got them and he said: ‘If you run 14.21 in your race today, you can have the spikes.’ It was an amazing offer. I ran as hard as I’d ever run and did 14.24.

“I went back to Daley and proudly told him I’d done a personal best and run 14.24. ‘So can I have the spikes?’ I said, thinking it was only 300ths of a second outside the time. Daley shook his head. ‘The deal was for you to run 14.21 and you ran 14.24. You didn’t make it. No, you can’t have the spikes.’

“It taught me a huge lesson. You should be rewarded for achieving your real goal and not for anything slightly less.”

Update:

OMG! Daley and Colin replied to me on Twitter!