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Jason Statham Was An Elite Level Diver Before His Movie Career

Jason Statham Was An Elite Level Diver Before His Movie Career

Jason Statham - star of The Transporter and Crank - competed for England at the 1990 Commonwealth Games

Tom Wood

Tom Wood

We might know him more these days for his roles in The Fast & Furious films and The Meg, but did you know that Jason Statham had a very successful career before he became involved in films?

Well, if you didn't - he was an elite level diver, and even competed for England at the Commonwealth Games in 1990.

Seriously, go and look it up.

OK, so we're bringing this up because the Tokyo Olympics have started today, and he didn't quite make it that far, but the Commonwealth Games is still very much an elite level of sport.

They aren't just giving places at those events away, are they?

BBC

Statham has said in the past that he actually regrets having never realised his Olympic dream.

The games he competed in were Auckland, New Zealand, and were sandwiched in-between Olympic years in 1988 in Seoul and 1992 in Barcelona.

Statham failed to take home a medal despite competing in the 1m, 3m and 10m diving events, and that has clearly stayed with him throughout his wildly successful - and well-paid - career since then.

PA

In an interview with the Press Association, he 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."

Imagine getting to a major international games for something that 'wasn't [your] thing', eh?

Strangely enough, this isn't exactly the well-known piece of trivia that you might have thought it was, and some people have only recently realised that he competed at all.

One person said: "I was today years old when I found out Jason Statham was quite a diver."

Another ranted: "Jason Statham? Commonwealth Games?? Diving??? HAIR???????"

Well, it's true. He did.

He also had hair, because most people aren't bald for their entire life.

After his diving career wasn't quite the splash he'd intended - they have to be small, remember? - he managed to find a break in modelling, treading the runway for brands like French Connection, Tommy Hilfiger, and Levi's.

Then, he branched out from that into films, and has become one of the most recognisable faces in the action movie world, starring in classics of the genre like The Expendables and Fast & Furious.

Sure, he might one day have been able to make it to the Olympics with his diving, but it probably wouldn't have made him as much cash.

Featured Image Credit: BBC

Topics: SPORT, Entertainment News, TV and Film, olympics, Celebrity, Interesting, UK Entertainment, US Entertainment, Weird