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]
- ^ a b c Jayanthi, Neeru; Pinkham, Courtney; Dugas, Lara; Patrick, Brittany; Labella, Cynthia (May 2013). "Sports specialization in young athletes: evidence-based recommendations". Sports Health. 5 (3): 251–257. doi:10.1177/1941738112464626. ISSN 1941-7381. PMC 3658407. PMID 24427397.
- ^ a b c Brenner, Joel S.; Council On Sports Medicine and Fitness of the American Academy of Pediatrics (1 September 2016). "Sports Specialization and Intensive Training in Young Athletes". Pediatrics. 138 (3). doi:10.1542/peds.2016-2148. ISSN 0031-4005. PMID 27573090.
- ^ a b Swindell, Hasani W.; Marcille, Melanie L.; Trofa, David P.; Paulino, Franklin E.; Desai, Natasha N.; Lynch, Thomas Sean; Ahmad, Christopher S.; Popkin, Charles A. (January 2019). "An Analysis of Sports Specialization in NCAA Division I Collegiate Athletics". Orthopaedic Journal of Sports Medicine. 7 (1): 2325967118821179. doi:10.1177/2325967118821179. ISSN 2325-9671. PMC 6350152. PMID 30729145.
- ^ Daley, Mary M.; Shoop, Jamie; Christino, Melissa A. (September 2023). "Mental Health in the Specialized Athlete". Current Reviews in Musculoskeletal Medicine. 16 (9): 410–418. doi:10.1007/s12178-023-09851-1. ISSN 1935-973X. PMC 10427563. PMID 37326758.
- ^ "Multi-Sport Athletes vs. Single Sport Athletes – The Pros and Cons". National Scouting Report. 20 December 2019. Retrieved 23 April 2024.
30 out of the 32 first round picks in the 2017 NFL draft were multi-sport athletes in high school.