From College Athletes to Olympians: 10 Inspiring Sport Transitions
In the world of sports, the road to the Olympics rarely runs straight. For some athletes, that journey started on a completely different playing field.
These 10 Olympians made bold leaps from their college sports to something entirely new. Their stories show just how much adaptability and grit matter when chasing big dreams.
From basketball players swapping sneakers for skates to track stars pushing bobsleds, their paths prove resilience and versatility can take you far. Let’s dive into these wild journeys—because who says there’s only one way to Olympic glory?
From the Court to the Ice: Brittany Bowe
Table of Contents
- 1 From the Court to the Ice: Brittany Bowe
- 2 Headfirst into Skeleton: Kelly Curtis
- 3 An Uncharted Path: Anna Gibson
- 4 Rejection to Redirection: Deedra Irwin
- 5 Pushing for Change: Kaysha Love
- 6 From the Field to Five-Time Olympian: Elana Meyers Taylor
- 7 Tracking on the Olympics: Jadin O’Brien
- 8 Athletic Goals: Samantha Smith
- 9 Relaying a New Passion: Carsten Vissering
- 10 Skating to a Goal: Sarah Warren
College sport: Basketball
Olympic sport: Speedskating
Brittany Bowe’s story is a wild ride through different sports. She grew up playing basketball and racing inline speedskates, managing to juggle both.
Her hard work paid off—she snagged Florida Atlantic’s Most Outstanding Female Athlete award in 2010. Then, after watching the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, she caught the speedskating bug for real.
Post-graduation, Bowe packed up and moved to Salt Lake City to chase her new dream. She ended up winning bronze medals at the 2018 and 2022 Olympic Games.
Headfirst into Skeleton: Kelly Curtis
College sport: Track and field/heptathlon
Olympic sport: Skeleton
Kelly Curtis jumped from track and field into skeleton by grabbing an unexpected chance. After a teammate medaled in bobsled at the Vancouver Games, her coach nudged her to try bobsled too.
She rocked a bobsled combine and soon got an invite to an Olympic driving school. That’s where she discovered skeleton, and she knew instantly it was her sport.
In Beijing 2022, Curtis became the first Black athlete to represent Team USA in skeleton. That’s a pretty big deal, honestly.
An Uncharted Path: Anna Gibson
College sports: Track and field, cross country
Olympic sport: Ski mountaineering
Anna Gibson’s athletic background is all over the map—in a good way. She did elite college track, cross country, trail running, Alpine skiing, and cross-country skiing.
Teaming up with her friend Cam Smith for a U.S. mixed relay, she helped them win their first World Cup and punch a ticket to the 2026 Olympics. Gibson also set an NCAA record in the distance medley relay, which probably helped her confidence.
Rejection to Redirection: Deedra Irwin
College sports: Nordic skiing, cross country, track and field
Olympic sport: Biathlon
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Deedra Irwin’s Olympic path wasn’t smooth. She missed the 2018 Games as a Nordic skier, but a friend suggested she check out a biathlon talent camp.
Irwin made the development team and kept pushing until she made it to the 2022 Olympics. There, she placed seventh—the best American finish ever in biathlon. She also managed a 3.9 GPA while competing in three sports, which is, frankly, impressive.
Pushing for Change: Kaysha Love
College sport: Track and field
Olympic sport: Bobsled
Kaysha Love went from track to bobsled in a flash. USA Bobsled invited her to a push camp, and her raw athleticism stood out immediately.
She made it to the 2022 Beijing Olympics just 16 months later. Love holds the UNLV record in the outdoor 4×100-meter relay and is the reigning monobob world champ.
From the Field to Five-Time Olympian: Elana Meyers Taylor
College sport: Softball
Olympic sport: Bobsled
Elana Meyers Taylor’s switch from college softball to bobsled legend is honestly wild. She played shortstop and pitcher at George Washington, then started bobsledding in 2007.
She made the national team fast and racked up five Olympic medals—more than any other Black Winter Olympian. Meyers Taylor’s story shows just how far determination and a willingness to try something new can take you.
Tracking on the Olympics: Jadin O’Brien
College sport: Track and field (pentathlon)
Olympic sport: Bobsled
Jadin O’Brien’s rise in bobsled happened almost overnight. She started in August 2025 and landed on the U.S. team for the 2025-26 season as a push athlete.
Her World Cup debut saw her finish fourth in two-woman bobsled, which earned her a spot at the 2026 Olympics. O’Brien’s three NCAA titles in indoor pentathlon definitely gave her a strong base.
Athletic Goals: Samantha Smith
College sport: Soccer
Olympic sport: Cross-country skiing
Samantha Smith somehow balanced soccer and cross-country skiing, and it paid off big time. She got promoted to the U.S. Ski Team A Team in 2024-25, making her one of the youngest Americans at that level.
Just a week after Stanford’s soccer season wrapped, Smith won the U.S. national title in the classic sprint. That’s some serious versatility.
Relaying a New Passion: Carsten Vissering
College sport: Swimming
Olympic sport: Bobsled
Carsten Vissering jumped from swimming into bobsled because he loved strength training. After finishing his swimming career, he got curious about bobsledders’ workouts.
He went to a camp in Lake Placid and picked up the sport’s technical side quickly. Even though people warned him that the switch from swimming to bobsled would be tough, he stuck with it and debuted at the World Cup in 2022. The 2026 Olympics will be his first Games.
Skating to a Goal: Sarah Warren
College sport: Soccer
Olympic sport: Speedskating
Sarah Warren started chasing her Olympic dream in speedskating when she was just 13. She dove into short track and landed a fourth-place finish in the 500 meters at the Youth Winter Olympic Games in 2012.
Later, she switched gears and played soccer at Illinois, earning Academic All-Big Ten honors twice. Now she’s working on her master’s in biomedical engineering at Johns Hopkins, somehow balancing it all with the same drive she brings to sports.
For more detailed stories about athletes like Sarah, check out the original article.