In 1984, everyone wanted to be American. Playgrounds were awash with young boys sporting Michael Jackson’s one glove, girls skipping around in Madonna wedding dresses. And, lurking in the corner somewhere near the bike sheds were the kids who wanted to be Carl Lewis. They were essentially brilliant at absolutely everything, but totally lacking in social skills. That summer, the great man equaled Jesse Owens’ record of four gold medals (100m, 200m, long jump, relay), whilst simultaneously convincing the planet that his superhuman arrogance was a little bit abhorrent. In the above clip, legendary funny man Eddie Murphy does an impression.
For everything that was amazing about Daley Thompson - his athletic prowess, his fantastic computer game, his moustache - he could never quite master celebrating appropriately. Gazza gave us the tears, Beckham made standing Christ-like in awe of himself an art form. While Thompson gave us loitering casually on a podium whistling the national anthem. If he’d had a decent set of pockets, he’d have probably put his hands in those too.
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