my-server
← Wiki Redirected from Multi-sport athlete

List of multi-sport athletes

A multi-sport athlete is an athlete who competes or trains two or more different sports. Most of these athletes played two or more sports from a young age – especially in high school – before deciding to usually concentrate on just one sport professionally.

Playing multiple sports appears to improve performance through development of foundational transferable athletic skills. A large majority of elite young adult athletes, such as NCAA Division I athletes and first-round NFL draft picks, were multi-sport athletes, even if they specialized in a single sport during their professional career, and many played multiple sports even through the end of high school. Most elite athletes who eventually specialized avoided early sports specialization, so they did not specialize or begin intensive training until they were older teenagers. Elite athletes in most sports, such as track and field, weightlifting, cycling, rowing, swimming, skiing, are less likely to have done intensive training at a young age than the near-elite athletes. NCAA Division I athletes tended to play multiple sports in high school, and only one in six specialized in a single sport before the age of 12. In the 2015 NFL Scouting Combine, six out of seven invited college athletes were multi-sport athletes in high school.

List of athletes

Below is a list of multi-sport athletes who have played in at least one sport professionally, listed by primary athletic occupation, with notes on their secondary sport or sports.

Association football

Australian rules football

Baseball

Basketball

Bodybuilding

Bobsleigh

Bowling

Boxing

  • Eddie Eagan – 1920 light heavyweight boxing Olympic gold-medalist, and 1932 Four-man bobsleigh Olympic gold-medalist. Only athlete to win gold at the Summer and Winter Games in different events.
  • Eric Esch – retired boxer with an impressive 91–10–4 win–loss record who also fought professionally in kickboxing and mixed martial arts, creating a 7–4 and 28–10–1 win–loss record respectively.
  • Roy Jones Jr. – played in one game for the Brevard Blue Ducks of the USBL basketball league in 1990.
  • Bill Lang – Australian national heavyweight boxing champion. He was also an Australian rules footballer who played with Richmond in the Victorian Football League (VFL).
  • Joe Louis - world heavyweight boxing champion from 1937 to 1949, also was a professional wrestler and was an amateur golfer. Louis was granted posthumous PGA membership.
  • Ray Mercer – had two professional K-1 kickboxing bouts in 2004 and 2005, losing both. In 2009, Mercer had his first and only bout in pro MMA, defeating former UFC heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia.
  • Anthony Mundine – Australian winner of multiple boxing titles, who was also the highest-paid Rugby league player in the NRL.
  • Katie Taylor – amateur and professional world boxing champion, Olympic gold medalist (2012); also represented the Republic of Ireland women's national football team 11 times.
  • Mihai Leu – WBO Welterweight Champion (1997). After retirement from boxing, he raced into Romanian Rally Championship which he won in 2003 (Group A).
  • Seth Mitchell – heavyweight starred at linebacker for the Michigan State Spartans.
  • Lucia Rijker – top ranked in both boxing and kickboxing.
  • Manny Pacquiao – eight-division boxing champion drafted 11th overall by the Kia Motors team in the Philippine Basketball Association.
  • Holly Holm – started as a kickboxer winning a national amateur kickboxing title. Went on to fight professionally as a kickboxer and boxer, becoming one of the most highly decorated female boxers and defending titles in three different weightclasses, going both up and down in weight. Due to being a dominant champion for a long time is still ranked as all-time best pound-for-pound by boxrec automated ranking. Started fighting in MMA while boxing and after retiring from boxing became the first athlete to be world champion in both boxing and MMA.
  • Vitali Klitschko – had an extensive decade-long career in kickboxing, both amateur and professional, before becoming heavyweight boxing champion.
  • Gary Mason – also played rugby league for .
  • Jake Paul – amateur wrestler turned professional boxer.
  • Logan Paul – celebrity boxer who has wrestled in amateur wrestling and in WWE.
  • Kimbo Slice – boxer who also competed in street fighting and MMA.
  • John L. Sullivan – played baseball professionally

Cricket

Cycling

Darts

Figure skating

  • Max Aaron – US figure skater who started his skating career as a figure skater, he also represented USA in USA Hockey nationals in both 2006 and 2007, and played U18 AA as well as competing in figure skating at amateur level during that time.
  • Elvis Stojko – Canadian figure skater in the 1990s, also competed in martial arts and motocross racing.

Golf

Gridiron football

American football

Canadian football

Gymnastics

Handball

Ice hockey

Jai Alai

Lacrosse

  • Jenny Williams – World Cup winning (1986) and team captain (1989–92) lacrosse player for Australia who represented South Australia in six sports (lacrosse, indoor lacrosse, touch football, soccer, cricket and Australian football).
  • Julia Dorsey – plays soccer

Mixed martial arts

Motorsport

Netball

Orienteering

  • Tove Alexandersson – 21 times world champion in Orienteering (end of 2024). She also has ten world championships in Ski orienteering. In 2018 Alexandersson won the world championships in Sky running after her second skyrunning race ever. In 2020 she took up racing in Ski mountaineering after having trained that for some time (pausing ski orienteering but racing orienteering during the summer). In 2021 she won the combined class of the world championship, and in 2025 the Individual class in Ski mountaineering. This made her having world championships gold in four sports.

Rowing

Rugby league

Rugby union

Sailing

Shooting

Skiing

Ski jumping

Skyrunning

Snooker

Snowboarding

Strongman

Sumo

Swimming

Tennis

Track and field

Wrestling

Wrestlers who medaled in both Greco-Roman and freestyle wrestling in a single event:

See also

References

External links