Alvarez exhibits true medal
New Sox minor leaguer owns laurels from both Games
Speedskating and baseball are vastly different in their physical demands, but Eddy Alvarez has reached the highest levels of each sport. He has won Olympic medals in both, and also appeared in 50 games in Major League Baseball.
Alvarez, whom the Red Sox signed and assigned to Triple A Worcester on Tuesday, is a prime example of why early specialization in youth sports — a growing and often dangerous trend — is not always the best path to the pros.
High school athletes who specialize in a single sport are 70 percent more likely to suffer an injury during their playing season than those who play multiple sports, according to a 2016 study commissioned by the National Federation of High School Associations. Those injuries often result from specialized athletes putting more stress on a concentrated group of muscles, ligaments, and bones related to their sport.
Alvarez, 33, split his time between the ice and the diamond throughout his life, never spending more than a few years at a time in just one sport. Still, he found success at the international level in both — becoming one of just three Americans to medal at both the Winter and Summer Olympics.
“For Eddy to have done both sports — you could argue that he never really ever specialized, because he just kind of kept going back and forth with one or the other — but I think that was a huge asset for him to have this well-rounded development as an athlete,” said Steve Gough, who coached Alvarez and the US short-track speedskating team at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.
Alvarez helped Team USA win a silver medal in the 5,000meter relay that year. Four months later, the infielder signed a minor league contract with the Chicago White Sox, opting for the first time in his life to focus just on baseball.
When Alvarez made his major league debut for the Marlins in August 2020, he became the first Winter Olympian to reach MLB. He is one of just two athletes to have played in the major leagues and won an Olympic medal in another sport (Jim Thorpe was the first).
Alvarez returned to the Olympics seven years after his silver medal–winning performance in speedskating, this time as a member of the US baseball team at the Tokyo Olympics. He and Team USA lost to host Japan in the goldmedal game.
He had been with four franchises before signing with the Red Sox. He most recently played 63 games for the Nashville Sounds, Milwaukee’s Triple A affiliate, hitting .283/ .397/.473 with seven home runs, 31 RBIs, and 16 stolen bases. He was placed on the seven-day injured list Wednesday because of a left foot sprain.
“When he switched to baseball, I certainly wasn’t going to put any limitation on him,” Gough said. “I hadn’t seen him play baseball, but it’s been no surprise to see him climb pretty steadily through the ranks over the years.”
His success in two sports is unique among speedskaters, according to Gough. Most athletes Gough has coached train in speedskating year-round, and the few that dabble in other sports tend to stick to in-line skating and cycling, which require skills more translatable to speedskating than baseball.
Still, a few things are constant across all sports, no matter how different — assets like a strong work ethic, resilience, and a team-first mind-set.
“The things he was learning and doing in speedskating as an individual sport would translate into a good approach in baseball,” Gough said. “You have to really learn to put a bad race behind you. You can’t dwell on things. In baseball, I would imagine it’s very similar.”
That mind-set helped Alvarez rebound from a double knee surgery in 2012 to repair badly torn patellar tendons. He was left immobile for four weeks following the surgery but, by October, Alvarez was back vying for a spot on the national speedskating team.
Knee injuries are among the most common ailments in speedskating because of the highly demanding crouched position athletes hold throughout races, but it’s rare that they’re severe enough to require surgery, according to Gough.
Prior to his surgery, Alvarez was ranked around the top 10 in the United States but hadn’t qualified for a World Cup team. By January 2013, he was ranked in the top three.
“He made a big jump,” Gough said. “That’s a byproduct of good worth ethic and a good, consistent approach every day of training.”
Since leaving speedskating in 2014 to focus on baseball, Alvarez is a one-sport athlete for the first time in his life. The Red Sox are hoping it’ll pay off.