By Danielle Kutchel
In a career spanning 30 years, Narre Warren South resident Michael Schiavello has beamed into millions of homes, bringing sport to life with an electric energy.
He’s rubbed shoulders with some of the world’s biggest sports stars and worked on massive global events.
But it wasn’t always his dream to be a sports commentator.
In fact, as a year 10 student looking for work experience, Mr Schiavello had his heart set on being an architect.
When none of the architecture firms he wrote to offered him a work experience position, Mr Schiavello’s mother encouraged him to try radio instead.
He applied to Triple M and received a confirmation letter on his birthday.
The team put him in the newsroom for his work experience tenure, and Mr Schiavello said he quickly fell in love with the gadgets, the microphones and flashing buttons.
“From that moment on, all thoughts of being an architect disappeared and all I wanted to do was radio and broadcasting and media.”
His mum, it seemed, had been on to something.
In year 11, as a “means to wag class”, Mr Schiavello joined some mates in commentating a school athletics event at Olympic Park.
Finding he had a real knack for the craft, he went on to work at the local community radio station where he scored interviews with some of the world’s biggest sports stars.
By the age of 20 he had found his groove commentating fight sports.
Since then, Mr Schiavello’s passion and enthusiasm for sports and commentating has taken him all over the world to commentate major sporting events, including commentating the boxing events for over 130 countries in the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the boxing in the 2006 Commonwealth Games.
He’s worked in 27 different countries, from Jamaica to Hungary, England to France, the USA to Poland and all throughout Asia.
He’s a two-time winner of the Asian Television Award for Best Sports Presenter/Commentator and is the most watched Australian sports television commentator, broadcast to 154 countries with Nielsen-rated viewership of 81 million globally.
He’s hosted his own prime time interview show in the US, ‘The Voice Versus’, where he interviewed big names like Steven Seagal, George Foreman, Hulk Hogan and ‘Sugar’ Ray Leonard.
He counts ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin as his best ever interview – and to this day, the now-retired wrestler calls Mr Schiavello for interviewing advice for his own television shows.
Now, Mr Schiavello has released a book, called ‘The Commentators’, celebrating 100 years of sports commentating.
2021 is the 100th anniversary of the profession, and Mr Schiavello’s book delves into the greatest sporting moments in history and the commentators behind them.
Some of the world’s best commentators have contributed sections to the book, including Vin Scully, who has been voted the number one sports commentator of all time.
With such an impressive CV, it might look like there’s little left to achieve – but Mr Schiavello said he still has a few things on his bucket list, like commentating a Wrestlemania.
But for now, the Narre Warren South resident is enjoying commentating for ONE Championship, the third most watched sports broadcasting company on the planet.
He hopes his story can serve as an example of how far passion and enthusiasm can take you.
“I was just a regular kid with a regular background, no formal study ad no diplomas on my wall, but I made it to the top of the TV world and sports commentating world,” Mr Schiavello said.
“I’d like that to be an inspiration to anyone out there, that if you have a passion and enthusiasm you can do it.
“Do what you love, and if you love it, do the best you can and no matter what anyone says keep ploughing through.”
Find out more about Mr Schiavello’s book at wilkinsonpublishing.com.au/book/the-commentators
