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

Cricket

Cycling

Darts

Equestrian

Figure skating

Golf

Gridiron football

American football

Canadian football

Gymnastics

Handball

Ice hockey

Lacrosse

Mixed martial arts

Motorsport

Netball

Orienteering

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: