Daley Thompson does not want to rain on anyone's parade, but the idea of standing on a float and brandishing his medal was always likely to be one job too far for the king of the multitaskers. The man with the moustache bristled at the prospect. “If they'd had a victory parade in my day, I wouldn't have turned up,” he said. “Good luck to them, but I'd have been training and thinking about the next championship.”

He already is. Thompson admits that he would like to help Charles van Commenee, the new head coach at UK Athletics, to steer the sport to London 2012 and believes that the old guard should be in the vanguard of change. “If Charles wants me, I'd be happy to get involved,” the Olympic decathlon champion of 1980 and 1984 said. In what capacity? “That would be Charles's call. If he wanted me to coach, fine. Our international experience in athletics is huge. We have so many winners and none are used. Why? Because we were never treated very well by those who invited us in. Times have changed, though. It's a new regime.”

Thompson's sledgehammer subtlety and passion for athletics appear a neat fit for Van Commenee's methodology. The pair spent time together at the Beijing Games, but Thompson has not been offered a role. Nevertheless, his views on what needs to change are trenchant. “There's a lot of complacency,” Thompson said. “It's too easy to get into our team and I would like to think Charles will get involved in selection and only take the people who deserve it.

“If Charles had been in the job four years before Beijing, there would have been a significant difference in terms of preparation and attitude. Whether that would have been enough to turn four medals into six or eight, who knows?”

Thompson is far from the bitter former pro and is defensive when people criticise athletics for having only a supporting role in today's Olympic parade. “It's so much easier to win in swimming, cycling, rowing and sailing than in athletics, despite what they say,” he said. “We [athletics] were somewhere about average in Beijing.”

After a return of four athletics medals this summer, Daley predicts that Britain will win at least ten in London, but suggests that the real benefits of Van Commenee's work may be felt a further four years down the line.

However, he believes that Martyn Rooney, the 400metres runner, and Lisa Dobriskey, the middle-distance runner, will benefit from not fulfilling their potential in their Olympic finals in Beijing. Most of all, Thompson has had his enthusiasm lit by Usain Bolt, the triple gold medal-winning sprinter, and the Jamaican's showboating, which riled Jacques Rogge, the IOC president, but conjured up memories of Thompson's maverick celebrations. “The difference is I was trying to be disrespectful,” he said.

- Daley Thompson was speaking as an Ambassador of the Sainsbury's English Schools Athletics programme.