Hollywood icon chased Olympic diving glory in the 90s

As the 2024 Paris Olympics continue, unearthed images from 1990 show a beloved Hollywood actor pursuing a career as an international competitive diver.

Years before Fast & Furious and The Transporter, none other than Jason Statham was actually a top level diver.

The action movie star, 56, used to lead a very different life, and he even represented England at the Commonwealth Games back in 1990.

He was 23 at the time, and although he competed in the 1m, 3m and 10m events, he didn’t take home a medal at the games in Auckland, New Zealand.

Jason sadly never made it to the Olympics – no, he wasn’t quite Tom Daley – which he’s admitted in the past is still ‘a bit of a sore point’, with both Seoul 1988 and Barcelona 1992 either side of his Commonwealth year.

He previously said: ‘It’s a bit of a sore point I never got to the Olympics. I just heard they got seven million or something for the diving per year. They deserve it. The divers we’ve got now are just terrific.

‘I started too late. It probably wasn’t my thing. I should have done a different sport.’

That seems pretty humble for someone who still represented his country at a major games, regardless of anything else.

Despite him having some level of success – and talking about it before – plenty of people only recently found out about his previous athletic endeavours.

@LuxMeaMundiAM commented: ‘How did I not know Jason Statham was once a professional diver?!’

Another fan, @blesskatty, commented: damn, that was a long time ago, but he’s always been a badass!

And a different fan, @HYN_SOL, wrote: ‘Wow, bro had a full head of hair back then. Looks like a whole different person.’

That’s right – he wasn’t always bald either. The more you know!

After the games, the Beekeeper actor moved into modelling and appeared on runways for the likes of Tommy Hilfiger, French Connection and Levi’s.

From there, he got his movie break and became a huge star in action blockbusters, as well as Guy Richie classics Snatch and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.

So things ended up going pretty well for the former diver!

This article was originally published April 27, 2024.

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