{"id":480548,"date":"2026-02-17T11:18:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T11:18:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/480548\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T11:18:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T11:18:12","slug":"the-shaq-of-the-bobsled-track-has-made-his-olympic-debut-for-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/480548\/","title":{"rendered":"The Shaq of the bobsled track has made his Olympic debut for Canada"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Canada’s Taylor Austin, right, and Shaquille Murray-Lawrence start for a two man bobsled run at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d’Ampezzo on Monday.Alessandra Tarantino\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n

He was named after two basketball stars, with his father hoping he would end up following in their footsteps. In a way, he has.<\/p>\n

Meet Shaquille Anfernee Murray-Lawrence, a Canadian bobsled push athlete at the Milan Cortina Games. He was born in 1993, and yes, was named after Shaquille O\u2019Neal and Anfernee (Penny) Hardaway, who were teammates with the Orlando Magic and teamed up to win Olympic gold for USA Basketball at the Atlanta Games in 1996.<\/p>\n

Murray-Lawrence probably won\u2019t be winning gold at these games \u2013 he and pilot Taylor Austin were 15th after Monday\u2019s first two runs of the two-man event \u2013 but he can say that, just like his namesakes, he\u2019s now an Olympian.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday is very special for me, my country, my friends, family, my whole community,\u201d Murray-Lawrence said. \u201cJust being able to give it my all and just represent Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n

Murray-Lawrence is not a 7-footer who could dominate the paint like O\u2019Neal. Nor is he a 6-footer with the smooth handles and explosive playmaking of Hardaway. At somewhere around 5-foot-8, the Scarborough, Ont. product decided to pursue football in the United States.<\/p>\n

Loads of of letters to college coaches went largely unanswered. He ended up at a junior college in Texas \u2013 and then the school closed.<\/p>\n

He went to another junior college, and then transferred to UNLV, where despite averaging seven yards every time he touched the ball, he was apparently most notable for having the \u201clongest name ever at the school,\u201d deemed: \u201cthe hardest fit in Rebel roster history.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Canadian Football League came calling, however. All the while, Bobsled Canada took notice.<\/p>\n

And his winding track through sport now requires a sleigh.<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Before finding bobsled, Murray-Lawrence enjoyed some time in the CFL, seen here playing for the B.C. Lions during a 2016 game against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

\u201cMy father was definitely a Shaq fan, and he hoped one day that I would grow to 7 feet tall and be dunking in basketball,\u201d Murray-Lawrence said. \u201cThat never happened, but I was blessed with tremendous speed, tremendous heart, tremendous pride, and that\u2019s all I need.\u201d<\/p>\n

There have been other athletes named Shaquille in the Olympics before, including a swimmer from Zambia named Shaquille Moosa \u2013 who finished the 50-metre event at the 2020 Tokyo Games (held in 2021 because of the pandemic) ranked 56th out of 73 swimmers.<\/p>\n

And Greece had a basketball player named Sofoklis Schortsanitis, who went by \u201cBaby Shaq\u201d because of his massive frame and massive personality. Schortsanitis played in the 2008 Beijing Games, scoring 15 points during the tournament with three of those points coming in a loss to the U.S.<\/p>\n

Now there\u2019s Murray-Lawrence. He heard O\u2019Neal might be coming to the Olympics. He\u2019d love nothing more than to meet him at the bobsled track.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a powerful name, you know,\u201d Murray-Lawrence said. \u201cThe name has a great legacy to it and I\u2019m glad I\u2019m able to hold up my end of the bargain. I wasn\u2019t in basketball but, you know, I\u2019ve dominated two sports now \u2013 so I think I\u2019m doing pretty good.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Canada’s Taylor Austin, right, and Shaquille Murray-Lawrence start for a two man bobsled…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":480549,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,43,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,44,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,41,39,42,40,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":{"0":"post-480548","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-alberta","9":"tag-arts-news","10":"tag-bc","11":"tag-breaking-news","12":"tag-breaking-news-video","13":"tag-british-columbia","14":"tag-canada","15":"tag-canada-news","16":"tag-canada-sports","17":"tag-canada-sports-news","18":"tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","19":"tag-canadian-breaking-news","20":"tag-canadian-news","21":"tag-economy","22":"tag-education","23":"tag-environment","24":"tag-federal-government","25":"tag-foreign-news","26":"tag-globe-and-mail","27":"tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","28":"tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","29":"tag-government","30":"tag-headlines","31":"tag-life-news","32":"tag-lifestyle","33":"tag-local-news","34":"tag-manitoba","35":"tag-national-news","36":"tag-new-brunswick","37":"tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","38":"tag-news","39":"tag-northwest-territories","40":"tag-nova-scotia","41":"tag-nunavut","42":"tag-ontario","43":"tag-pei","44":"tag-photos","45":"tag-political-news","46":"tag-political-opinion","47":"tag-politics","48":"tag-politics-news","49":"tag-quebec","50":"tag-sports-news","51":"tag-technology","52":"tag-top-news","53":"tag-top-stories","54":"tag-topnews","55":"tag-topstories","56":"tag-travel","57":"tag-trudeau","58":"tag-us-news","59":"tag-world-news","60":"tag-yukon"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=480548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480548\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/480549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=480548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=480548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=480548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}