Photos of a Hollywood star representing the British team in the show jumping at the 1990 Commonwealth Games resurfaced on Saturday.
When he was 23, the athlete-turned-actor tried out for a spot in the 1988 and 1992 Olympics, but unfortunately failed both times.
He went from diving to modeling and then acting in music videos, until he finally became the gritty Hollywood tough guy he is known as today.
So, have you guessed who it is?
Photos of a 23-year-old Hollywood star representing the British team in show jumping at the 1990 Commonwealth Games resurfaced on Saturday.
Before becoming Hollywood’s darling for action, Jason Statham, 57, was an avid high jumper who tried, unsuccessfully, to qualify for the British team at the 1988 and 1992 Olympics.
It’s Jason Statham!
Throughout his acting career, Jason went from playing cockney gangsters to one of the most recognizable action stars in the world.
In 1998, he made his acting debut in Guy Ritchie’s Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.
But before the glitz and glamour, Jason was nearing the peak of something very different.
Eight years before that, Jason was in Auckland competing in the Commonwealth Games.
Representing England, the star of “Death Race” was actually a professional show jumper.
It was an admirable attempt by Jason, who performed at three separate events.
She achieved a top 10 finish in the one-metre springboard, and followed that up with two 11th-place finishes in the three-metre and 10-metre platforms respectively.
Jason has credited his career in sports as part of the reason he has been so successful on the big screen, telling the BBC in 2008: “I think what I didn’t achieve[in sports]helped me focus more and take my acting career more seriously.”
Although many may not know about Jason’s past as a diver, his interest in the sport will come as no surprise to anyone.
Jason went from diving to modeling and then acting in music videos, until he eventually became the gritty Hollywood tough guy he is known as today.
Jason has credited a high-seas diver he saw as a child while on family vacation as the reason he got into diving.
Despite his diving career failing to pan out, Jason has enjoyed great success in his acting and personal life (pictured with long-term partner Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, 37, in April).
The Derbyshire-born star, who appears in many of his films, has practiced martial arts including kickboxing and karate.
But his love for diving began when he was a young teenager, and he attributes it to seeing a high-altitude dive in Miami.
Jason said Olympic Games.com in 2023: ‘I was on vacation in Florida with my mom and dad and there was a guy who used to do a high jump every day at noon from one of the hotels we were staying at.
“And I said, ‘When we get home, I’m going to do that.'”
“I joined the club when I was 11 or 12. Within a year I was part of the British team and gained momentum and speed, and I spent the next 10 years doing that.”
His hard work and dedication in his early years would pay off when he was inducted into the British National Diving School in 1985, earning the right to represent Great Britain and England in international competitions.
But a place at the Olympics would never materialise for the Hollywood star, after attempts at the Summer Games in Seoul and Barcelona respectively.
And despite appearing in many hits throughout his acting career, including The Expendables, Transformers and the Fast and Furious franchise, grossing billions of dollars, missing the Olympics remains a regret.
Jason Statham was inducted into the British National Diving School in 1985.
Despite two attempts to qualify for the Olympics, she failed to qualify for either the 1988 or 1992 Summer Games.
“It’s a bit of a pain not to have been able to compete at the Olympics,” said Jason Statham after Jack Laugher and Chris Mears became the first Britons to win an Olympic diving gold medal at Rio 2016.
“They deserve it. The divers today are fantastic. I started too late. It probably wasn’t my thing. I should have taken up another sport.”
The 2024 Olympic Games kicked off in Paris on Friday with Céline Dion delighting everyone with a surprise performance.
Meanwhile, Jason, who turned 57 on Friday, is away from the action, enjoying quality time with his fiancée, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, 37, in Los Angeles.
