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List of multi-sport athletes

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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.[1][2] 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.[1][3][4][5] Most elite athletes who eventually specialized avoided early sports specialization, so they did not specialize or begin intensive training until they were older teenagers.[2] 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.[1] 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.[3] In the 2015 NFL Scouting Combine, six out of seven invited college athletes were multi-sport athletes in high school.[2]

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List of athletes

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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

Cricket

Cycling

Darts

Equestrian

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 WilliamsWorld 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

Volleyball

Wrestling

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

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See also

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References

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