The ten finest athletes to participate in each Summer time and Winter Olympics

Michael Phelps? A rank newbie. Usain Bolt? Pffft. Gimme a break. These guys might solely do one sport. I imply, set your sights only a teensy bit increased, might you? Be a little bit extra like, properly… Greg Rutherford.

On Wednesday, Rutherford was named within the British bobsleigh squad and revealed he was aiming for a spot within the 2022 Olympics. If he makes it, he’ll be part of an elite squad of 139 athletes who’ve competed in each Summer time and Winter Olympic Video games. (Rutherford, as you properly know, received gold within the lengthy soar in 2012 and bronze in Rio in 2016. He additionally received Movie star MasterChef, though that’s not recognised by the Olympic Committee. But.)

Right here, in honour of the nice man’s newest achievement, is a listing of the ten best exponents of this undeniably spectacular phenomenon.

First off, some floor guidelines, as a result of all the perfect prime tens begin with a tedious administrative level of order, proper? This record doesn’t embrace any athlete who competed in the identical sport at each Summer time and Winter Olympics. The 1920 Summer time Olympics in Antwerp featured each ice hockey and determine skating. They’d have in all probability featured snowboarding, too, if it wasn’t so heat and Belgium wasn’t hopelessly flat. A whopping 29 athletes who competed in these occasions went on to compete on the inaugural Winter Olympics in Chamonix in 1924, together with the nice determine skater Gillis Grafstrom, who received gold in 1920, 1924 and 1928, and, as such, received medals at each Summer time and Winter Olympics.

Proper. Let’s get on with it…

10. Connie Carpenter-Phinney (velocity skating and biking)

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The mix of velocity skating and biking is a comparatively frequent one, second solely to athletics and bobsleigh on the dual-Olympians’ record. However Connie Carpenter-Phinney was genuinely outstanding at each. She continues to be the US’s youngest ever Winter Olympian, having come seventh within the 1,500m in 1972… on the age of simply 14. By 1976, she was the nationwide champion, and closely fancied for a medal, when catastrophe struck, within the type of an harm that denied her glory.

By now, Carpenter-Phinney had been biking to remain match within the low season and realised she wasn’t half unhealthy at it. So she determined to jack within the skating and focus on wheels moderately than blades. She went and received the nationwide title in her first season and went on to win the Olympic highway race in 1984, profitable a dash end after 79km of arduous graft.

For good measure, she was additionally one of many nation’s prime rowers, profitable a nationwide title racing within the 4 for Berkeley whereas nonetheless a pupil. Latterly, her son, Taylor, represented the US in biking in 2008 and 2012, ending an agonising fourth in his two occasions in 2012.

9. Lauryn Williams (athletics and bobsleigh)

Kansas Metropolis Star

The highway from athletics to bobsleigh is properly trod, however no one has carried out it with as a lot success as Lauryn Williams. The sprinter received silver within the 100m in Athens in 2004, aged simply 20, whereas nonetheless a pupil in her junior yr in school. She got here fourth in 2008 in Rio, earlier than lastly getting her palms on gold in London in 2012 with the US ladies’s 4x100m crew.

After retiring in 2013, she obtained chatting with Olympic hurdler Lolo Jones, who was working with the bobsleigh squad, and determined she had yet another problem in her. In December of that yr, she took half in some World Cup races and was named within the US crew the next month. Having solely been concerned within the sport for six months, she was named within the US lead two-woman bob, pushed by Elana Meyers Taylor. After three of their 4 runs in Sochi, the pair have been main, solely to be overtaken by Canada on the ultimate run.

However, Williams received silver and is a part of a membership of six athletes to have medals from each Summer time and Winter Olympics. Seven of the groups within the Olympic closing featured former observe and area athletes, together with three former Olympians.

8. Jeroen Straathof (velocity skating and biking)

DAMIEN MEYER

You could by no means have heard of him, however Straathof is exclusive in sporting historical past. He’s not solely taken half in a Summer time and a Winter Olympics, he’s competed within the Paralympics as properly. The Dutchman’s odyssey started with velocity skating, the place he completed ninth at Lillehammer in 1994. Two years later, he accompanied his girlfriend (now spouse) Evelyn van Leeuwen to the Paralympics in Atlanta. She, too, had been a velocity skater till a horrible crash at an occasion in Leiden left her a paraplegic. Now she was a member of the Dutch wheelchair basketball crew.

Whereas on the Paralympics, Straathof met a visually impaired bike owner, Jan Mulder. The 2 hit it off and started to coach collectively. They shaped a tandem particular person pursuit pairing and went on to turn out to be Paralympic champions in Sydney in 2000. By this stage, Straathof's driving had achieved such prominence that he was invited to coach with the Olympic crew and, in 2004, he was a part of the Dutch crew pursuit crew that completed fifth. He might not have medalled, however he’s nonetheless the one athlete ever to seem in a Summer time and Winter Olympics and a Paralympic Video games. Presumably, if he pops up within the Winter Paralympics, he will get to shout “Bingo” and win a free Littlewoods voucher.

7. Eddy Alvarez (velocity skating and baseball)

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A Cuban-American who grew up in Miami, aged 5 Eddy was given a pair of roller-skates and found he had some affinity for the talent. He would entertain passers-by on South Seashore performing methods. He got here to the eye of coach Bob Manning, who launched him to the ice.

In his teenagers, he grew to become a vastly proficient baseball participant, however turned down a full scholarship to school as a way to consider his skating. In 2014, he grew to become the primary Cuban-American man ever to be a part of the velocity skating squad on the Olympics. Regardless of crashing out in all of his particular person occasions, he went on to win silver within the 5,000m relay.

With the skating monkey off his again, he pursued baseball and performed properly sufficient to make it on to the Florida Marlins’ roster. He was picked for the Olympic crew that went to Tokyo, the place he carried the flag within the opening ceremony earlier this yr. He went on to win silver, the US dropping to Japan within the closing. Earlier this month, he scored his first ever Main League dwelling run for the Marlins, on the ripe outdated age of 31. It’s been an honest couple of months for the lad.

6. Jacob Tullin Thams (ski leaping and crusing)

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Within the Twenties, the Norwegian was virtually definitely the perfect ski jumper on the planet. He received gold on the inaugural Winter Olympic Video games in 1924 and was favorite going into the 1928 video games, till his mood obtained the higher of him. A spat with the Swiss crew noticed them label the Norwegians as cowards. Decided to not play it secure, Thams went for broke on his final soar the place a conservative effort would have probably received him gold. As a substitute, he flew an astonishing 73 metres, virtually ten metres additional than another athlete. Sadly, he stacked it on touchdown and completed twenty eighth.

In 1936, he had made it onto the Norwegian crusing crew, a part of a crew racing within the eight-metre occasion. He received silver, turning into solely the second ever athlete to win medals at each Summer time and Winter video games.

5. Christa Luding-Rothenburger (velocity skating and biking)

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Of the six athletes to have received medals at each video games, solely Luding-Rothenburger has carried out it in the identical yr (a document that can by no means be damaged now that the video games happen in numerous years). An explosively fast velocity skater, she received gold within the 500m for East Germany in Sarajevo in 1984. Her coach, Ernst Luding, suggested her to take up biking to maintain match in the summertime and by 1986 she’d received gold within the dash occasion on the Biking World Cup.

In Calgary, in 1988, she received a gold within the 1,000m and silver within the 500m velocity skating occasions. Seven months later, in Seoul, she received silver within the 1,000m observe biking. The coach had clearly had the precise thought. She rewarded him by marrying him.

4. Eddie Eagan (boxing and bobsleigh)

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As the one athlete to win gold medals at each Summer time and Winter Olympics, many would anticipate to see American Eagan prime the record. The reigning AAU heavyweight champion, he received gold within the gentle heavyweight boxing in Antwerp in 1920, profitable all three of his bouts by resolution. He was strongly fancied once more in 1924, when he was defeated within the first spherical by Britain’s Arthur Clifton. He assumed his Olympic profession was over. Destiny had different concepts.

In 1932, he obtained a name from an outdated pal. The outdated pal occurred to be on the Olympic Bobsleigh Committee and revealed that they have been on the lookout for somebody to hitch the crew for the Olympics… in three weeks. Eagan put the cellphone down and introduced to his startled spouse: “Honey, I’m on the Olympic bobsleigh crew.”

Three weeks later, Eagan lined up on the beginning line at Lake Placid, within the four-man bob pushed by reigning champion Billy Fiske, who would later go on to turn out to be one of many first American pilots killed within the Second World Struggle. They received gold, beating US II into second place. Eagan, a Rhodes scholar and graduate of Yale, Harvard and Oxford, loved a distinguished authorized profession and served with distinction within the battle. In 1948, he set a world document for the quickest circumnavigation of the globe by scheduled airline flights, travelling 20,559 miles on 18 completely different flights.

3. Clara Hughes (biking and velocity skating)

Tim de Waele

Whereas six folks have received medals at each Olympics, just one has received a number of medals at each Summer time and Winter video games. Canada’s Clara Hughes was, by her personal admission, a wayward little one and was already into smoking, consuming and medicines by the age of 16. However she was impressed by watching the velocity skating on the 1988 Olympics and took up the game.

The next yr, aged 17, she found biking and gave up on the skating. For now… She went on to turn out to be an 18-time nationwide champion and received two bronze medals in biking on the Atlanta Olympics in 1996, for the highway race and the time trial. She was the primary Canadian lady to win an Olympic biking medal.

After the video games, Hughes battled extreme despair and is now a psychological well being campaigner. However, she recovered and within the 2000/2001 season she went again to aggressive velocity skating on the age of 28. A yr later, she certified for the Olympics, the place she received a bronze medal within the 5,000m. 4 years later, in Turin, she received Olympic gold in the identical occasion and a silver within the crew pursuit. Nonetheless not carried out, she certified for the 2010 video games, the place she received one other bronze medal, once more within the 5,000m, giving her extra Olympic medals than another Canadian (degree with fellow velocity skater Cindy Klassen).

Absurdly, she then went again to biking, the place she certified for the Canadian highway racing crew for London 2012, on the age of almost 40. Not solely that, she virtually obtained a medal, ending fifth within the time trial. I’m exhausted simply typing all of that.

2. Vsevolod Bobrov (soccer and ice hockey)

A sporting celebrity in the course of the Stalinist period, Bobrov was voted into third place in a ballot of Russia’s biggest ever athletes, behind Lev Yashin and the Greco-Roman wrestling legend Aleksandr Karelin (887 wins, two defeats). He would warrant a spot on the record for his exploits in soccer alone, which is not any imply feat contemplating he was a greater ice hockey participant than he was a footballer.

His soccer profession started in 1945 on the age of twenty-two when, after serving within the military in the course of the battle, he was signed by CSKA Moscow. He grew to become a prolific striker, scoring 82 targets in solely 79 appearances. He was known as as much as the nationwide crew for the 1952 Olympics, the place he scored 5 targets in simply three video games, together with a hat-trick towards Yugoslavia. Nevertheless, the sport led to a 5-5 draw and the Soviets misplaced the replay 3-1. This went down notably badly with Stalin, who had fallen out with Yugoslavia’s chief, Tito, and was determined to conquer the Balkan state. On account of incurring Stalin's displeasure, the CSKA crew (which shaped a lot of the nationwide aspect) was wound up.

Bobrov, nevertheless, had different fish to fry. Since 1946 he’d mixed careers in each soccer and ice hockey, enjoying first for CSKA after which VVS. In 1950, he overslept when his VVS crew have been flying to a match and adopted them by practice. The airplane crashed and virtually all of his crew mates have been killed.

In a stellar hockey profession, Bobrov scored 254 targets in 130 video games, profitable the championship seven instances. He received 59 caps for his nation, scoring 89 targets. He captained the aspect that went to the Olympics in 1956 and led them to the gold medal, profitable each match they performed. Bobrov went on to handle a number of groups (together with the relaunched CSKA) in soccer and did the identical in ice hockey, the place he rose to turn out to be coach of the nationwide crew, main them to 2 world championships.

Bobrov died aged simply 56 in 1979. Immediately, one of many 4 Russian ice hockey leagues is called after him.

1. Sven Bergqvist (soccer and ice hockey)

It may appear unusual to plonk somebody who by no means received an Olympic medal on the prime of this record, however Sven Bergqvist was merely extraordinary. He performed within the prime division in Sweden in soccer. And in ice hockey. And in handball. And in bandy (eleven-a-side ice hockey on a bigger rink, performed with a ball).

In soccer, Bergqvist was a goalkeeper for Hammersby from 1932 to 1946, the final two years of which he was player-manager. He received 35 caps for the nationwide crew and performed on the Summer time Olympics in 1936 when the aspect was knocked out by Japan. He was so good that he was given the possibility to hitch Racing Membership De Paris and turn out to be Sweden’s first skilled footballer. He turned the provide down.

In ice hockey, Bergqvist was a defender of nice acclaim, enjoying for Hammersby for 13 seasons, profitable 5 championships. He received 55 caps for his nation and represented Sweden within the 1936 Winter Olympics, the place the crew was eradicated within the second group stage. He went on to educate the nationwide crew that completed fourth on the St Moritz Olympics.

However Bergqvist didn’t simply qualify for 2 Olympic groups in 1936. He certified for the handball crew as properly. He declined the provide, reasoning that he was extra established as a footballer. He additionally managed to seek out the time to play for Hammersby in bandy, the place he was a goalkeeper within the prime division for 4 years, representing the nationwide crew.

Oh, and he additionally competed in Sweden’s prime division in ten-pin bowling.

In 1955, Bergqvist was very badly injured in a automobile accident and spent the remainder of his life in a wheelchair. Being Sven Bergqvist, nevertheless, he promptly took up archery and have become an professional. Certainly, by 1960 he was so good that he was requested to hitch the Paralympic crew going to Rome. It was a suggestion he declined, as all bills needed to be self-funded.