Television host Matt Shirvington has revealed that he was surprisingly asked to represent Australia at the Winter Olympics and compete in bobsleigh.
However, the Sunrise star turned the opportunity down in order to race at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
The former sprinter-turned-broadcaster reached the semi-finals of the men’s 100m and the quarter-finals of the 200m at the 2000 Games, having previously claimed bronze in the 4x100m relay at the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur.
It was here that Shirvington broke the Australian men’s 100m national record, running a time of 10.03 seconds, which was later broken by Patrick Johnson in 2003 in Mito, Japan.
However, while speaking on Sunrise, Shirvington explained that he had been tapped up by Australian selectors over a possibility that he could get into bobsleigh.
It came during an interview with Aussie bobsleigh star Jermayne Takapautolo, who is training to represent Australia at the 2026 Winter Olympics.
Matt Shirvington left his co-host Natalie Barr shocked on Wednesday after he revealed that he was once asked to compete at the Winter Olympics
Shirvington, a former sprinter, revealed on the show with Barr (both pictured) that he had been tapped on the shoulder about an opportunity to join the Australian bobsleigh team
However, the Aussie sprint star opted instead to continue with his running career, going on to represent his country at the Sydney Olympics in 2000
He even revealed that he spent some time training for the winter sport.
‘You know what, they asked me to do that,’ Shirvington said on the Channel Seven show.
‘It’s a whole other story,’ he added, with his co-host Nat Barr, being left shocked by the revelation.
Barr then quizzed Shirvington as to whether the selectors approached him because of his pace on the track.
But he added: ‘It’s all about the push, apparently. Then you just jump in and hold on.’
Barr pressed further: ‘Did you think about it?’ To which Shirvington responded: ‘I considered it…’
He added: ‘But when I actually did some training, I thought: “Why am I training for this when I could be training for running?”’
The 46-year-old from New South Wales would go on to win a bronze medal in the men’s 4x100m at the 2001 World Championships, before retiring in 2008.
Shirvington (pictured) said: ‘But when I actually did some training, I thought: “Why am I training for this when I could be training for running’
He’d go on to work in the media, joining up with Sky News and Foxtel in 2010, as a presenter, before going on to work for Channel 7 in 2020, working as a weekend sport presenter on Seven News.
Takapautolo, a radiographer at the Logan Hospital in Brisbane, is attempting to qualify to represent Australia at the Olympics.
However, a year ago, he hadn’t even heard about the sport.
‘Everyone loves an underdog story,’ he told Channel Seven.
‘I’ve never even been to Perisher.
‘It’s been a crazy year.’
‘Ever since I was a kid, (I thought) the Olympics is the ultimate dream to represent your country and be with other elite athletes,’ he added.
‘I saw an ad to try out and I thought, ‘Why not?’
‘I went to the open try-outs and did the best I could and was invited to go to a training camp, from there they invited me to stay for the rest of the season.’
Takapautolo was later invited to compete at the World Championships in the USA and this week will leave for Canada, where he will participate in a training camp to prepare him for Olympic qualifying.
