The 7 Most Impressive Multi-Sport Athletes

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Playing one sport at a consistently high level is too much for most people, so imagine being able to excel in more than one. Many exceptional athletes have achieved just that, while many others abandoned cross training to concentrate on their chosen field of expertise. This post will focus on some of those American athletes, in no specific order, who decided to pursue more than one sporting type during their incredible careers.

1. Mildred “Babe” Didrikson Zaharias (Track & Field and Golf)

Texas’ Babe Zaharias set four world records at the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics on her way to two gold medals and a silver. In the 80-meter hurdles, Zaharias set a world record in the heats before breaking it in the final as she claimed gold in 11.7 seconds. In the javelin event, she won Olympic gold with a new world record throw of 43.69 meters. Zaharias was then beaten to gold in the high jump by fellow American Jean Shiley, although both bettered the existing world mark.

In 1935, as Zaharias began to slow down, she took up golf to maintain her competitiveness. She competed in a PGA event in 1938, becoming the only woman golfer to compete against male professionals until nearly 60 years later. After winning the 1946 U.S. Women’s Amateur and the 1947 British Ladies Amateur tournaments, Zaharias turned pro and won 82 tournaments, including 10 majors, before retiring in 1956, passing away from colon cancer later the same year.

2. Eddie Eagan (Boxing and Bobsleigh) 

In 1932, Eddie Eagan became the first Olympian to win a medal in both the Summer and Winter Olympic Games when he won gold with Billy Fiske’s bobsleigh crew in Lake Placid, New York. Twelve years earlier, The Colorado native had clinched gold in the light-heavyweight boxing division final in the Antwerp, Belgium Summer Olympics. 

Only two Americans — Lauryn Williams in track and bobsleigh and Eddie Alvarez in speed skating and baseball — are dual sports athletes who have won medals at the Summer and Winter Olympic games since.

3. Eddie Alvarez (Speed Skating and Baseball)

Eddie Alvarez became the first Cuban-American male speed skater to make a U.S. Olympic team in 2014 before winning the silver medal in the 5,000-meter short-track speed skating relay event at the Sochi Winter Olympics in Russia later that year. After his Olympic medal, Alvarez retired from speed skating in favor of baseball. 

By 2020, Alvarez was representing the Miami Marlins in the MLB, hitting his first home run the following year. The same year, he was the joint-U.S. Olympic flag bearer with basketballer Sue Bird at the delayed Tokyo Olympic games in Japan. With the U.S. Olympic baseball team, he reached the final against the host, winning a silver medal after his team’s subsequent loss.

4. Holly Holm (Boxing and MMA)

At school in New Mexico, Holly Holm excelled in soccer, swimming, diving and gymnastics before finding her niche as a fighter competing in amateur kickboxing. She turned professional in boxing, however, and ended with several welterweight world titles among her 33 wins in 38 professional fights. After starting mixed martial arts with Bellator MMA, Holm won her final fight as a boxer before retiring to concentrate on further building her muscular strength with her newly-found passion.

Holm has won 15 of her 23 MMA fights since, fighting under the Bellator MMA, Legacy Fighting Championship and Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) banners. In 2016, the blonde fighter defeated defending UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey to end the latter’s three-year undefeated reign.

5. Deion Sanders (Football and Baseball)

Possibly one of the most recognized names among America’s multi-athletes who played baseball and football, Deion “Prime Time” Sanders played 14 seasons in the NFL and nine in the MLB. He was part of the San Francisco 49ers team that won the Super Bowl in 1994, repeating the feat the following season with the Dallas Cowboys. 

Sanders’ 1994 appearance made him the only athlete to have made both a Super Bowl and World Series appearance after his unsuccessful World Series bid two years before when his Atlanta Braves team lost out to the Toronto Blue Jays in six games. Alongside Bo Jackson, Sanders is the most renowned multi-athlete who’s played both football and baseball at the highest level.

6. Bo Jackson (Baseball and Football)

Bo Jackson is the only professional athlete to hold All-Star status in two major American sports. He started his professional career in MLB with the Kansas City Royals in 1986 while starting his NFL career with the Los Angeles Raiders the following year — rushing 37 yards on debut. Jackson continued playing both sports until a hip injury forced his NFL retirement in 1991.

Continuing in MLB until 1994, when he retired at 32, Jackson starred for the Royals, the Chicago White Sox and the California Angels but spent much time on the disabled list due to his hip issues and osteonecrosis — a condition affecting his bone tissue. Despite a contract offer, Jackson chose to retire, citing getting to know his family better as the reason.

7. Wilt Chamberlain (Basketball and Volleyball) 

Known as an NBA legend, Chamberlain represented three franchises in a stellar 14-season career that saw him win two NBA championships and set two career records that still stand today. The Pennsylvania-born center remains the NBA player with the most career minutes per game, with 45.8, and set a career-high 22.9 rebounds per game.

Although basketball was certainly Chamberlain’s sport of choice, the NBA Hall of Famer took to playing beach volleyball as rehabilitation from a knee injury in the early 1970s. After retiring from the NBA in 1973, Chamberlain represented the Southern California Bangers, Orange County Stars and Seattle Smashers when the International Volleyball Association (IVA) after the indoor league’s formation in 1975. Described as “the best spiker in the world,” Chamberlain’s presence legitimized the IVA, which he would go on to administer before its 1980 disbandment.

Other Notable Multi-Sport Athletes

More top-class multi-sport athletes excelled in their chosen sports than you’d imagine. The variety of sports also differs vastly, often adding to the impressive nature of the athletes’ prowess. A few other notable multi-sports athletes are:

• Mookie Betts (baseball and ten-pin bowling)
• Sammy Byrd (baseball and golf)
• Mark Hendrickson (baseball and basketball)
• Chris and Matt Bahr (football and soccer)
• Jim Brown (football and lacrosse)
• Nate Ebner (football and rugby)
• Ray Edwards (football and boxing)
• Bill Goldberg (football and wrestling)
• Ronda Rousey (judo, MMA and wrestling)
• Kevin Greene (football and wrestling)
• Greg Hardy (football and MMA)
• Jim Riley (hockey and baseball)
• Brock Lesnar (wrestling and MMA)

Multi-Sport Athletes Give the Sports World Something Extra

In a world where professionally targeting a specific sport has become essential to reaching its pinnacle, the examples of multi-sport athletes look likely to diminish. Ask yourself whether you’ll ever see the likes of Deion Sanders or Bo Jackson excelling in football and baseball again in the same year. Will an exemplary multi-Olympian like Babe Zaharias ever make headlines as a multiple golf major winner in today’s sporting landscape? These multi-sport athletes have added something to sporting history that will stand out for decades to come.

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