Daley Thompson’s a TERF

[ACatCalledPushka]

And he seems to be enjoying it!
https://twitter.com/daley_thompson/status/1687088897342255104?s=46&t=5tHsrgY5T97exTqeFD4LWg

Glad he took all recognisable features out of the photo. So another restaurant doesn’t get vandalised by TRAs.

BTW Princess Anne was 33 at the time. I'm pretty sure they were flirting...

She's only human. I'd've been professing my undying lust love to him.

He’s been a terf for years

But how does it compare to today's Decathletes?
You can't compare a decathlete who competes in 10 disciplines, to an out and out sprinter. They are carrying more upper body muscle, needed for pole vault and the throwing events, that a sprinter just doesn't need.

I've just learned his mother was from was from Dundee!

I wonder how the javelin results of today's top 100m runners would compare to DT's best javelin results, or their 1500 m times, or their discus results. You can't compare individual disciplines to the decathlon.
I'm not British and I watched a lot of athletics and the athletes from this time that people, even the non-Brits or non-US, remember are Carl Lewis and Daley Thompson and possibly Ed Moses (but that might just be me, I had a bit of a crush) and Mike Powell, mostly because of the epic showdown in the long jump final when both Powell and Lewis broke Bob Beamon's record.
I don't think there is any doubt over DT's greatness as an athlete.

DT’s 100m would have placed him 4th in the decathlon 100m in Tokyo.

And Carl Lewis' personal best would have seen him come third in Tokyo.
Are there any records from the 80s/early 90s that are still standing today?

Tom #bekindandknitagagforwomen Daley should take notes and learn from Daley Thompson.

That article is a real slice of the 80s. My kids would be gobsmacked 😄

He quotes Peter Cook and Dudley Moore and re his convo with Princess Anne, Michael Shea says 'Princess Anne wants to make it quite clear that she finds it absurd that anyone should think anything said by Daley Thompson after his outstandingly brilliant achievement was offensive in any way.'

I bet he and Sharron natter into the small hours.

It's hyper linked a mangle! 🤣

The women’s 800m record🤨

Is this a homophobic act? It could be seen as pointing out that the most important thing about the person is their athletic ability not their sexual preference. He's not outing someone. But I could be misreading it and giving him the benefit of the doubt. If he is homophobic I don't think even the terfiest woman should ignore that in glee at his support for women getting a fair deal in sport.

The women’s world records in the 100m, 200m, 400m & 800m were all set in the 1980s by athletes who were dopers. The times are considered untouchable by today’s drug-tested athletes despite four decades of advances in training, nutrition etc etc.
Marita Koch’s 400m record, in particular, remains a jaw-dropping performance. She was part of the East German state doping program. Check it out on YouTube.

Records achieved with proven doping don't really count for this argument, not for me at least.
Which records from the 80s, other than Mike Powell's long jump record, achieved without doping, still stand now. And also, what PBs would the athletes from the 80s have achieved if they had had similar training, nutrition and gear to the current lot?

One of the comments under the Guardian article:

”Daley wore a t-shirt with the statement 'Is the world's second greatest athlete gay?' because a number of Americans were asking of Carl Lewis 'Is the world's greatest athlete gay?'
Daley's point was that he was the world's greatest athlete and if any question were asked about Carl Lewis, it should refer to Lewis as the world's second greatest athlete.”

So the t-shirt statement looks jarring seen by modern eyes, and out of context. And arrogant, yeah. But straight-up homophobic? Not sure. The general press at the time sure as hell was though, no question!

yeah, I'd like to know if Thompson has apologised for that. Carl Lewis was an extraordinary athlete, under the pressure of the times (with all the doping going on in some countries) and his performances were so amazing that he was subjected to a lot of speculation and testing (IIRC he always came up clean) and I'm not sure that a huge part of that wasn't racism anyway. Then there was the covert and overt racism, and then there was the homophobia.

And he was always calm under pressure. A real role model.

Ah I wondered what had happened to the table.

Got it.

I was pretty certain there would be some explanation involving in a bit of piss taking, to be honest.

Definitely a bit of piss taking, on one report he explained as in gay meaning happy.

I think it was a piss take. Daley didn't start the rumours they were rife. Carl Lewis was an extraordinarily accomplished athlete.

Carl Lewis was treated much worse by prospective sponsors. He turned down a deal because he reasonably thought he could get a better one after he'd won a shit ton more gold medals. The deals did not materialise because of the perception he was gay. There is still speculation about it. He was caught up in a doping scandle in the late 80s. He claimed it was a Chinese herb he hadn't realised contained banned substances and was given a pass.

Fwiw, I'm not a sports fan and I'd completely forgotten about it and him. In the unlikely event Carl Lewis reads this I'd like to say he's a great athlete, owed a massive apology by a bunch of corporations and news outlets and, perhaps, a glass of nice wine from Daley Thompson.

This is what Gaydar has to say

No, Carl Lewis is not gay. Rumors regarding his sexuality stem from his appearance during the 1984 Olympic Games. Lewis was unfairly judged by the public and the media for his haircut, clothing, and personality, which contradicted the macho stereotypes of the time. The athlete also denied the allegations, implying that he is straight.

Is Carl Lewis Gay? Addressing The Athlete’s Sexuality (celebgaydar.com)

So I think the intention of the t-shirt was to call out homophobia.

Please explain what is transphobic.

This is my favourite game on MN. The ones who pop up with 'transphobia!' never come back or even attempt to answer. The day it gets answered I will turn into a man.