Federal politician and Olympic shooter Dan Repacholi is hoping to compete at the Paris Games

Labor MP Dan Repacholi was elected to parliament in 2022.  (ABC News: Ian Cutmore)

Dan Repacholi has been shooting since he was 12, and three decades on he reckons he is still a spring chicken.

“I’ve been in teams where I’ve competed with people well in their 60s, and then people well into their 60s have won Olympic medals,” Repacholi said.

“And I think the oldest Commonwealth Games medallist was in his 80s, and that happened at the Gold Coast.”

Is that a template or precedent for his own sporting ambitions?

“Definitely not, I don’t think my wife could handle that,” he quipped.

The jovial Member for Hunter has made five Olympic teams, his first appearance in the green and gold being in Athens in 2004.

Now, he is on the cusp of getting a ticket to his sixth.

The champion air pistol competitor is just two international qualifying events from making the cut, and the equation from here seems fairly simple.

“I’ve got two events to come, which are two World Cups — one in Azerbaijan and one in Munich — where I’ve got to finish in the top 50 in one of those two events to then secure my spot to the Olympic Games,” he told the ABC’s Afternoon Briefing.

“I’m shooting well, so you’ve always got to be confident.

“And this is just part of the process to hopefully make my sixth Olympic Games and give myself the opportunity to win that elusive Olympic gold medal.”

Even though success in Paris is the ultimate goal, Repacholi’s trophy cabinet is far from bare, with gold and bronze medals from the Commonwealth Games and numerous championship titles.

Membership of an exclusive club

If he makes his sixth Olympics, Repacholi will also gain membership to a pretty exclusive club.

While there have been a number of federal politicians who have competed in Olympic Games prior to entering parliament, such as former skier Zali Steggall and hockey and athletics competitor Nova Peris, it is an even smaller cohort who have competed while holding office.

Repacholi cited former hockey player Ric Charlesworth, who represented Australia at the Olympic Games in Munich in 1972, Montreal in 1976 (where the team won silver), Los Angeles in 1984 and Seoul in 1988.

He was the Member for Perth for a decade from 1983, and became the coach of the Hockeyroos after his political career.

“It’s a very small club,” Repacholi said.

“There’s not many ex-athletes amongst the politicians in that building, so it’s good to good to hopefully go there as a sitting MP — it’s very, very different.

“I’m getting a lot of support from all sides of politics on this, it’s been fantastic.”

Coalition cooperation for Olympics tilt

The federal opposition has gone as far as to grant Repacholi a pair, meaning he has been able to be absent from parliament to attend training and competitions without it affecting votes on the floor of the House.

“They agreed to give me a pair for anything I needed for the Olympic Games, so it was great that they said yes, and that they’re behind it,” he said.

“I don’t think it was surprising, I always thought they’d be pretty on board.

“It’s not very often you get an opportunity where you can have a sitting member go and represent their country, and try and do their best for not only themselves but for Australia.

“If the roles were reversed, I’d be jumping at that person to give them a pair so that we can see what they really can do.”

Balancing the workload of a federal politician with the demands of an Olympics tilt has been challenging, and the Labor MP is a regular at the Cessnock Pistol Club in his New South Wales Hunter Valley electorate

“There’s 24 hours in a day, and I try to make sure I use every one of them,” Repacholi joked.

“Most of my training is done between five o’clock in the morning and say eight, and then also around 8:30 in the evening to about 11.

“So that’s what I try and fill in the most that I can, but it all needs to fit around my work schedule.”

Three decades of shooting for Repacholi

Repacholi grew up on shooting ranges, juggling his passion with work as a fitter and turner and a coal miner.

“Mum and Dad were shooters at the Melton Pistol Club down in Victoria,” he said.

“Mum used to work night shifts on Friday and Saturday night, so Dad would babysit us at the pistol club — what we now call parenting.

“I just took it up when I was 12, and I had the right coaches along the way and got a little bit better each time and then was lucky enough to make my first Olympic team when I was 22.”

He believed there are lessons he has taken from his sporting career which has helped him as an elected representative.

“You have to listen to people, you have to respect people, you have to understand people, and you have to be willing to compromise in some ways, as well,” Repacholi said.

“And they are good things to have in all of life — whether you’re an MP or whether you’re a cleaner at Macca’s, or whether you’re a fitter in between — it doesn’t matter what you do, you need to have a little bit of compromise in life as well.”