Don Thompson (athlete)

James Donald "Don" Thompson ( born January 20, 1933, Hillingdon, London, † October 4, 2006 in Frimley, Surrey ) was a British track and field athlete and Olympic champion.

In his first participation in the XVI. Summer Olympic Games in Melbourne in 1956 he was in a 20 - km walk 5000 meters from the finish in 5th place when his circulatory collapse, because he, unlike those in his hometown was not used to these high temperatures. Therefore for the Summer Olympic Games in Rome in 1960, he prepared himself with a special training. To his normal road training he invented for himself additional training: Thompson regularly be heated bathroom and filled it with steam, so almost had a sauna, and completed his endurance training.

Thus equipped, he went at the Olympic Games in Rome at 30 degrees outside temperature and high humidity at the start more than 50 km Walk, which he graduated with the gold medal and 17 -second lead ahead of Sweden's set as favorite John Ljunggren ( silver ) and the Italians Abdon Pamich (bronze). In the XVIII. Summer Olympics in Tokyo in 1964, he raced in the same discipline, but only reached number 10 At the European Championships 1962, he won the bronze medal.

1990, at the age of 57 years, he ran his personal best over 50 miles and was in the British leaderboard at No. 5 In the same year he also took part in the annual end 100 -mile walking part, he with a respectable 2nd place finished in a time of 19:58:29 hours.

At a height of 1.68 m his competition weight was 58 kg.