Commonwealth Games athlete Katie Shanahan reveals she turned down spot on Love Island to compete

A medal-winning athlete and self-confessed Love Island fanatic has claimed she was scouted by ITV execs to appear on the show last year, but was forced to turn down the opportunity.

Katie Shanahan, a Scottish swimmer, told BBC Scotland this week she grew up watching the series, and has sat through each and every episode since it first landed on our screens over 10 years ago.

If you've somehow managed to avoid the dating show hit in all that time, it features a selection of single contestants who are thrown into a plush holiday home together and isolated from the outside world. The main goal is to couple up, survive public votes, and win a cash prize (typically £50,000) by finding either genuine connection or public favour.

"I'm the biggest Love Island fan ever, I've watched every season," 22-year-old Shanahan gushed.

Shanahan claimed she was asked to go on the show last year (Michael Steele/Getty Images)

So, when opportunity knocked - or, called - for her to enter the famous Mallorcan villa as a contestant for the 2025 series last year, the sportswoman really had to weigh up her options.

The only thing that stood in her way was her busy schedule, given that she's been a professional swimmer since her teenage years - she even represented Team GB at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.

"Last year the producers asked me and Abbie Wood [the English swimmer] if we would be interested in doing it," Glasgow-born Shanahan recalled.

She explained, however, that the amount of time she'd spend away from her Tollcross training pool - given that the series traditionally drags on for between 8-10 weeks of the summer - meant that Shanahan had no choice but to politely decline.

"I couldn't go on, though, because of focusing on the swimming, but who knows in the future? I was a bit tempted, but the swimming had to come first."

And thank goodness she did turn it down, because if she was lucky enough to have remained in the show until the final - which aired on Monday (27 Jul) and saw Lorenzo and Julia take the grand prize - she'd have missed out on a silver medal.

Shanahan reflected on her illustrious achievement (Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

Shanahan sensationally collected silver in the 200m backstroke on the opening night of this year's Commonwealth Games, which kicked off in her home city last Friday.

Following the win, she was seen fighting back tears, later telling the press she'd been inspired to keep at her childhood hobby of swimming after seeing 2014 Commonwealth champion Hannah Miley's prior feats of victory.

Now, Shanahan hopes her efforts will inspire future sport stars.

"I've always said that if I can inspire the next generation of athletes coming through, then my job has been done," she explained. "I know after 2014 watching Hannah I felt inspired, and it would be nice to think that maybe some younger girls is watching the 200m backstroke this time, and maybe they'll get into swimming from it."