Photos of a Hollywood star representing Team GB in diving at the 1990 Commonwealth Games resurfaced on Saturday.
Then 23, the sportsman-turned-actor trialled for a spot in the 1988 and 1992 Olympics but unfortunately failed both times.
He made the move from diving to modelling, and then to acting in music videos, until he eventually became gritty Hollywood hard man he is known as today.
So, have you guessed who it is?
Photos of a then-23-year-old Hollywood star representing Team GB in diving at the 1990 Commonwealth Games resurfaced on Saturday
Before he became Hollywood’s action favourite, Jason Statham, 57, was an avid diver who tried and failed to qualify for Team GB at the 1988 and 1992 Olympics
It’s Jason Statham!
Over the course of his acting career, Jason has gone from playing cockney gangsters to one of the world’s most recognisable action stars.
In 1998, he made his acting debut in the Guy Ritchie project Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.
But before the glitz and the glamour, Jason was nearing the pinnacle of something very different.
Eight years prior to that, Jason found himself in Auckland competing at the Commonwealth Games.
Representing England, the Death Race star was actually a professional diver.
It was an admirable attempt from Jason who actually performed across three separate events.
He secured a top-10 finish in the one-metre springboard, and followed that up with two 11th places in the three and 10-metre platforms respectively.
Jason has given credit to 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.’
While many may not have known about Jason’s past as a diver, his interest in sport will come as less of a shock.
Jason made the move from diving to modelling, and then to acting in music videos, until he eventually became gritty Hollywood hard man he is known as today.
Jason has credited a high diver he saw during as a child while he was on a family holiday as the reason he got into diving
Despite the diving career not working out, Jason has enjoyed great success through his acting and personal life (pictured with his long-time partner Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, 37, in April)
Showcased in so many of his films, the Derbyshire-born star has practiced martial arts including kickboxing and karate.
But his love for diving began as a young teen which he accredits to seeing a high dive in Miami.
Jason told Olympics.com in 2023: ‘I was on holiday in Florida with my mum and dad and there was this guy who used to do a high dive at noon every day from one of the hotels we stayed in.
‘And I said: “When we get home, I am going to do that.”
‘I joined the club then, I was like 11 or 12 years old. Within a year, I was part of the British team and it 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 as he was inducted into the British National Diving School in 1985 earning the right to represent Great Britain and England at 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 over the course of his acting career including The Expendables, Transformers and the Fast & Furious franchise, grossing billions of dollars, missing out on the Olympics remains a regret.
Jason Statham was inducted into the British National Diving School in 1985
Despite two attempts at qualifying for the Olympics, he wasn’t able to qualify for either the 1988 or 1992 Summer Games
‘It’s a bit of a sore point that I never got to the Olympics,’ Jason Statham said after Jack Laugher and Chris Mears became the first Brits to win an Olympic gold medal in diving at Rio 2016.
‘They deserve it. The divers now are just terrific. I started too late. It probably wasn’t my thing. I should have done a different sport.’
The 2024 Olympic Games kicked off in Paris on Friday with Celine Dion delighting everyone with a surprise performance.
Meanwhile, Jason, who turned 57 on Friday, is far away from the action, enjoying some quality time with his fiancée, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, 37, in LA.
