In case you didn’t know, among the lineup of Hollywood actors, actresses, reality TV stars and pop idols is a huge squad of athletes and sports champions. And what better way to add a little showbiz to the Olympics than to have the likes of Jennifer Lopez, George Clooney, Zendaya and Jennifer Aniston competing for gold?
Here, we select Tinseltown’s first team of Olympians and reveal the sporting talent hidden behind their fame.
cycling
There are plenty of celebrities with real cycling chops. Jennifer Aniston used to cycle for a living when she was a struggling actress working as a bike messenger in New York. Now, the 55-year-old actress cycles to keep fit. Matt Damon takes things a little more seriously. The 53-year-old star has competed in a number of endurance races and was once rumored to be playing disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong in a biopic.
swimming
Former Friends star Courteney Cox is also a fierce swimmer in the pool. While attending Mountain Brook High School in New York, she won a state swimming championship, but gave up her dreams of being an athlete to become a model and then an actress.
Canoeing
Orlando Bloom’s Middle-earth adventures in the Lord of the Rings trilogy have made him an accomplished canoeist. In addition to knife, horseback riding and archery training for his role as Legolas, Bloom also underwent intensive training on the water. “It’s not as easy as you’d think,” says the 47-year-old star actor, who is married to Katy Perry. “Just going in a straight line is pretty tough.”
Athletics
Track and field is star-studded. George Clooney was a champion athlete in his school days. So was Loki star Tom Hiddleston. Hollywood hunk Mark Wahlberg still dreams of lacing up his boots and doing the Running Man. “In a perfect world, I’d be a professional athlete,” he says. “But I’ve moved on.” Halle Berry isn’t far behind. She won track and field medals as a teenager, but there’s only one true track star in Hollywood.
archery
Jennifer Lawrence may also get a pass, thanks to the training she endured for her role as Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games. Four-time Olympian archer Katuna Lorig, who coached Lawrence, says she could have gone professional. Jeremy Renner and Hailee Steinfeld also underwent intensive archery training for Marvel’s Hawkeye, making them both targets for Team Hollywood.
tennis
Zendaya has been training hard for the 2024 hit film The Challengers. In another world, she could have been a real challenger on the court. The 27-year-old star, who has appeared in Spider-Man and Dune, wowed the professional tennis coaches who worked with her for the film, with one coach telling her she had untapped talent. “I wasn’t a tennis fan before making this movie,” Zendaya says. “Now I’m a total tennis fan. Tennis is a fascinating sport and a really interesting world. I’d love to keep playing if I could.
Gymnastics
Before she was a music and movie superstar, Jennifer Lopez was a school athletics star. This young Latina trained as a gymnast in high school and so impressed her friends in the Bronx because her body was curved like a guitar. Speaking of gymnasts, look no further than Richard Gere from An Officer and a Gentleman. The 75-year-old star won a gymnastics scholarship to the University of Massachusetts before heading to Hollywood.
wrestling
We found two movie heavyweights battling it out in the ring for Hollywood. Jurassic World star Chris Pratt, like Tom Cruise, was a champion wrestler in high school. “I was on the school wrestling team and I was pretty good,” says Tom, “but then I hurt my knee, so I turned to acting.”
boxing
The event has had more star hopefuls than any other, including Russell Crowe, Will Smith, Hilary Swank and Robert De Niro, who have dazzled coaches by competing with pros for movie roles. But there is only one Hollywood star who can claim to be the true champion of the ring: 9 ½ Weeks star Mickey Rourke, who competed in 26 amateur bouts in the 1970s before retiring once his acting career took off.
Equestrian
Kendall Jenner has swooped into Team Tinseltown with her lifelong dream of actually competing in the Olympics in mind. The 28-year-old supermodel wants to follow in the footsteps of her father, Caitlin, who was an Olympian, and win a gold medal on horseback. “I want to compete in the Olympics on horseback. I have horses, but unfortunately I don’t get to ride as much as I used to. I want to compete in the Olympics and keep it going as a family. I think my dad would be so proud.” Model Bella Hadid also trained to Olympic standard, but had to give up riding due to her battle with Lyme disease.