Eddy Alvarez to Become Third American to Medal at Both Summer, Winter Olympics

Alvarez will become just the third American ever, and sixth athlete ever, to medal at both the Winter and Summer Olympics.

Sign up for our free daily Olympics newsletter: Very Olympic Today. You'll catch up on the top stories, smaller events, things you may have missed while you were sleeping and links to the best writing from SI’s reporters on the ground in Tokyo.

Eddy Alvarez, an infielder on the United States' baseball team, will become just the third American ever, and sixth athlete ever, to medal at both the Winter and Summer Olympics. 

Alvarez clinched a summer medal when Team USA defeated South Korea in the Olympic baseball semifinals on Thursday night. The American baseball team will face off against Japan this weekend in the gold medal game. 

Alvarez earned a silver medal in 2014 at the Sochi Olympics as part of the U.S. four-man short track team. When he returned from Sochi, he signed with the White Sox and made his way up the system before they traded him to Miami in 2019.

“Baseball is my true passion,” he told Sports Illustrated last summer. “Skating was more of a short-term goal.”

Last July, he made his major league debut with the Marlins, appearing in 12 games with the club.

Earlier this summer, Alvarez was selected to be one of the two American athletes to serve as the U.S. flag bearer at the Opening Ceremony. He was the first-ever baseball player to carry the American flag at the Summer Games, while WNBA star Sue Bird, who acted as the other U.S. flag bearer, was the second basketball player, following Dawn Staley in 2004.

By clinching his another medal, Alvarez will join Eddie Eagen (boxing in 1920, bobsled in 1932) and Lauryn Williams (track and field in 2004 and 2012, bobsled in 2014) as the three athletes who have medaled at both types of Olympics.