They might be among the best touring car drivers in the world but several leading lights from the FIA World Touring Car Championship would have relished a crack at the Olympics if they hadn’t been bitten by the motorsport bug. With the Rio games now in full swing, here are the sports that some of the WTCC’s would-be Olympians would like to try for size.
Thed Björk (Polestar Cyan Racing): “I would love to go into the Olympics. As I am an individual athlete in racing I would like to go into the hockey team. Being the Olympic hockey champion would be amazing. It’s big in Sweden but I haven’t played it so it would be completely new and a good team spirit. And you would go down in history in Sweden if you do really well in hockey. That or the pole vault because it would be so fun to jump as high as possible with the pole. Again I’ve never done it but it would be awesome.”
Tom Chilton (Sébastien Loeb Racing): “I want to get a gold medal and I think I could do that if I was doing archery because I always shoot the middle of the target. I do a lot of exercise but to do an Olympic sport you need to do 10 hours a day of exercise and not weigh 100 kilos so the only way I could get a gold medal for Great Britain would be to do archery.”
Rob Huff (Castrol Honda World Touring Car Team): “I’m not really a runner because I wasn’t built for running so I guess it would have to be a throwing event and the hammer is a bit of me, that’s a bit dangerous and I would be up for that. That or some kind of water sport, anything with a bit of adrenalin behind it.”
Dániel Nagy (Zengő Motorsport): “I have a very close connection to water polo through my brother Viktor, who is in goal for the Hungarian water polo team. I have already tried it so if I have a chance to choose I choose water polo.”
Gabriele Tarquini (LADA Sport Rosneft): “I love athletics, it’s the pure sport. When I was young I was very fast on the 100 metres. I was in the final of the under 16 in Italy. I dream really to be in the Olympic Games starting the 100 metres.”
Hugo Valente (LADA Sport Rosneft): “Like a lot of people I watched the 100 metres when I was younger, which is the most famous and most watched in the Olympics possible I would say and it’s crazy what they do. I also like swimming a lot. I am not a very good swimmer but I like to watch the competition.”