Anthony Sharwood

Ant grew up in Canberra, largely avoiding the world of politics except for the occasions when he and his schoolmates from Telopea Park High would sneak off to the building site of “New Parliament House” to smoke ciggies.

After graduating from Sydney Uni with a half-arsed degree from the economics faculty, Ant worked for bookies on Sydney racecourses, drove cabs and did a range of other odd jobs which some would patronisingly call “life experience” but which were in fact a way of paying the bills.

After his Olympic Cabbie’s Diary was published in 2001,  Ant worked as a freelance journalist, winning a Walkley in 2003 for his first ever magazine feature story. He then went to work as a feature writer for The Canberra Times, where he infuriated the entire sports department by getting the nod to cover the Athens Olympics.

One taste of the glamorous lifestyle of a sports journalist was all Ant needed to say “yes” to News Ltd, when it launched its flagship sports title Alpha in 2005. When The Punch launched, Ant started contributing sports stories at the rate of approximately one a week until eventually The Punch team caved in and said “righto, you might as well work here then.”

Ant is current Deputy Editor of The Punch and can be seen on Wednesday mornings on Sky News from 9.30 am. A father of two, he is often late to work due to Kevin Rudd’s failed promise to end the double dropoff.