U.S. Olympic short track speed skater Eddy Alvarez is set to start a professional baseball career.
The Olympic silver medalist signed minor-league contract papers with the Chicago White Sox in an Instagram video posted Tuesday. The club confirmed the signing was official Wednesday. Alvarez is working out with the organization in Arizona and will likely be assigned to a minor-league team within its organization.
Alvarez, 24, was an all-conference shortstop at Salt Lake Community College in 2011 before shifting focus to skating, where he and his U.S. teammates won 5000m relay silver in Sochi.
He predicted the switch back to baseball before the Sochi Olympics.
“I plan to go back to baseball after this,” he told MLB.com. “That’s the thing. I’ve never, ever been able to choose between baseball and skating, which is why I still juggle the two sports in my life. This was one of my goals -- always to be an Olympic skater -- and the other one is to be a professional baseball player.”
Alvarez is not the first Olympian to switch sports and sign with the White Sox. A basketball player named Michael Jordan did the same in 1994.
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