ATLANTA — Few athletes have an opportunity to compete in the Olympics, and even fewer are skilled enough to qualify for both the summer and winter editions of the games.
There's even a smaller pool of athletes that have earned a medal in both. According to modern Olympics archives, about 128 athletes have competed in both the winter and summer editions of the international competition.
A fraction of those athletes competed in both Olympics in the same sport in the 1920s, which was possible because the 1920 Games - before there were a separate Summer and Winter Olympics - included hockey and ice skating.
Those hockey players and figure skaters of the 1920 Summer Olympics then competed again in the proper Winter Olympics when they were established four years later in 1924, and the sports moved accordingly.
Though it's no longer possible to qualify for both the Winter and Summer Olympics with just one sport, it hasn't stopped six incredible athletes from mastering two sports and going for the gold.
Below is a list of Olympic athletes who have managed to reach the podium in both editions of the Games.
Eddie Eagan - United States
Boxing and bobsleigh
For decades, Eddie Eagan was the only man to have earned a gold medal at both the Winter and Summer Olympics in different disciplines, but he will forever be the first man to do it.
Eagen of Team USA was a boxer and competed in the 1920 and 1924 Summer Games in the ring. He earned the gold medal in 1920 competing in the light-heavyweight division. Next Olympics, he went up a division but didn't place - however, that wasn't the end of his Olympic journey.
Nearly a decade later he received a call from the U.S. Olympic Bobsleigh Committee. Team USA was down a competitor and needed a fourth man to round out the team.
On a whim, Eagan agreed and though he had never stepped foot in a bobsleigh, the team won gold during the 1932 Lake Placid Games.
Jacob Tullin Thams - Norway
Ski jumping and sailing
Jacob Tullin Thams competed in the first Winter Olympics at Chamonix in 1924, becoming the first Olympic ski jumping gold medalist in history.
Newspaper archives show Thams was known for his daring jumps and was a Winter Olympian to watch in the next Games, jumping an incredible 73 meters, or about 239 feet. He didn't stick the landing in 1928, with speculation that it cost him a spot on the podium.
After his skiing career, he competed in men's sailing as a member of the Norwegian team in the 8-meter class that won the silver medal at Berlin in the 1936 Games. This incredible feat made him the second athlete and the second male Olympian with medals from Summer and Winter Games, following Eagan.
Christa Luding-Rothenburger - Germany
Speed skating and cycling
Christa Luding-Rothenburger is the first athlete to medal at the Summer and Winter Olympics in the same year, archives show. She's also the first woman, and one of the only, to have earned a medal in both editions of the Games.
To help train for her first Olympics, her coach encouraged her to take up cycling during the off-season.
Sticking to her winning regimen, Luding-Rothenburger won the gold in the 1000m and the silver in the 500m speed skating competition at the Calgary Winter Olympics in 1988.
Later that year during the Seoul Olympics, she earned the silver medal in the track cycling sprint competition.
Clara Hughes - Canada
Speed skating and cycling
Luding-Rothenburger wasn't the only athlete to master speed skating and cycling. Clara Hughes would break her own records competing in both disciplines.
Hughes decided to take up speed skating after the Calgary Winter Olympics, but after being noticed by a cycling coach, she pivoted to competitive track and road cycling. Hughes would later win the bronze in the road race and time trial competitions in Atlanta during the 1996 Olympics. She later competed in the Sydney Games but didn't place.
Just 17 months later, Hughes returned to speed skating and competed in Salt Lake during the 2002 Winter Olympics, winning bronze in the 5000m race.
And she kept on winning.
Hughes won gold in the 5000m and silver in the team pursuit with her speed skating skills during the 2006 Games. She concluded her Winter Olympics career at Vancouver in 2010 with another bronze in the 5000m.
With an Olympic experience that spans decades, and the ability to stand on six Olympic podiums across Summer and Winter Games, archives show Hughes is the only athlete to have won multiple medals in both competitions.
Lauryn Williams - United States
Athletics and bobsleigh
Lauryn Williams has a legacy of being a top sprinter. She won a silver medal in the 100m at Athens 2004 and a gold in the 4x100m relay at London 2012.
Between the two Games, Williams won three gold medals and one silver at the World Athletics Championships and competed at the Beijing 2008 Olympics, according to archives.
The sprinter decided the leave the track and six months before Sochi 2014, she found herself putting her sprint skills to use as the brake woman in the U.S. two-woman bobsleigh team.
Williams would go on to win Olympic silver in the competition in Russia, becoming the first American female athlete to win medals at both editions of the Olympic Games.
Eddy Alvarez - United States
Baseball and short track speed skating
Eddy Alvarez, the son of Cuban immigrants and proud Team USA Olympian, recently joined the coveted list of athletes who have competed in both editions of the Games.
Before his MLB stint with the Miami Marlins, Alvarez became the first Cuban-American male speed skater to make a U.S. Olympic team. He won silver during the 2014 Sochi Olympics in the 5000m relay.
Pivoting to a pro baseball career, Alvarez debuted on the diamond as a Miami Marlin and was invited to play baseball for Team USA during the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
He was the first baseball player to be appointed a flag-bearer for the United States. Team USA ultimately lost to Japan during the gold medal game, earning them the silver.
After the Games, Alvarez was signed to a minor league contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers. He said he'll likely never compete on the ice again, but his stint in the Winter Olympics puts him among Eagen and Williams as the only Team USA members to earn medals at both the Summer and Winter Olympics.