Yahoo Lifestyle 19 Olympic Athletes With Random But Impressive Degrees
Being an Olympic-level athlete is basically a full-time job. Plenty of them balance a college education on top of their training. While pursuing a sports-related degree (like athletic training or sports journalism) seems like a logical next step, many of them pursue a completely new field.
Here are 19 Olympic athletes whose college degrees have nothing to do with sports:
1.American tennis player Serena Williams studied fashion design at the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale.
2.In 2018, Simone Biles began pursuing a bachelor's in business administration at the University for the People. Simultaneously, she started the Simone Biles Legacy Scholarship Fund to help foster children and others earn their degrees.
In a press release, she said, "I always dreamed of going to college but decided to follow my gymnastics dreams full time, which didn't make it possible for me. I had planned to attend UCLA but had to defer because of my training schedule. I still want to pursue a college degree, and the University of the People offers me the flexibility I need to fit in my studies around my career. I enrolled at the University of the People because I believe in higher education, and want to help share that opportunity for others around the world."
She also said, "Being a foster child myself, and knowing what it means to have the odds stacked against you, I decided to give a hand in opening this scholarship fund for foster kids and others and hope others will join me. At the end of the day, life circumstances shouldn't define you or keep you from your goals. I believe in the power of hard work. I know that dedication and desire can make the impossible possible, and I want to help remove barriers that keep a college degree out of reach for those that truly want it."
3.American gymnast Stephen Nedoroscik got his electrical engineering degree from Penn State.
He graduated in 2020.
4.British sprinter Dina Asher-Smith earned her history degree from King's College London.
She graduated in 2017.
Her dissertation was on the history of jazz.
5.Burkinabé jumper Hugues Fabrice Zango earned his master's in engineering and electric Systems and a doctorate in electrical engineering from Artois University.
He graduated in 2018 and 2023, respecitvely.
He told the BBC, "Being a world champion was more difficult for me than doing a PhD, because you need to be strong in the right moment to do the right thing. It was a crazy journey with my studies and doing athletics. When I think back, I'm really proud of myself."
6.American basketball player Stephen Curry earned his bachelor's in sociology from Davidson College.
He graduated in 2022.
He told AP, "It's cool to kind of relive the sights and sounds of school and campus and all that. This is a long time coming, obviously. Since I left campus, it was a goal to finish. Just obviously a sense of accomplishment but a promise I made to my mom and Coach [Bob] McKillop when I left after my junior year. It was pretty special. They had the Fathead [cutout] over on campus in my honor."
7.American fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad earned dual bachelor's degrees in African and African American studies and international relations from Duke.
She graduated in 2007.
8.American figure skater Michelle Kwan has a bachelor's in international studies from the University of Denver and a master's in international relations from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.
She graduated in 2008 and 2011, respectively.
She decided to pursue her degrees because of her diplomacy work.
9.Chinese table tennis player Deng Yaping earned her bachelor's from Tsinghua University, a master's in Contemporary Chinese Studies from the University of Nottingham, and a PhD in land economy from the University of Cambridge.
She graduated with her master's in 2002 then her PhD in 2008.
Her thesis was titled, "Olympic branding and global competition : the case of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games."
In 2013, she partnered with the University of Nottingham to launch the Deng Yaping Sports Scholarship for "students from China who compete in table tennis or badminton at a national or international level."
10.Austrian cyclist Anna Kiesenhofer earned her bachelor's in maths and physics from the Vienna University of Technology, her master's in pure mathematics from the University of Cambridge, and her PhD (where she did her thesis on integrable systems on b-symplectic manifolds) from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia.
She graduated in 2011, 2012, and 2016, respectively.
11.American basketball player Shaquille O'Neal has a doctorate in education from Barry University and a bachelor's in general studies from Louisiana State University.
He graduated in 2012.
He told Barry University News, "This is for my mother, who always stressed the importance of education. I am proud to have achieved a doctoral degree and wish to thank my professors and Barry University for helping make this dream a reality. I'm smart enough to know that, even at my tender age, my pursuit of education is never finished."
12.French skateboarder Charlotte Hym earned her cognitive neuroscience and psychology doctorate from the University Paris Descartes.
She graduated in 2019.
Previously, she earned her bachelor's and master's in sports sciences.
She told the Olympics website, "My doctoral research focused on the effect of the maternal voice and motor skills of newborn babies. We studied the interactions between a baby and the mother. I find it very interesting. I completed my thesis [in 2019] after four years of work, so now I can devote myself 100% to skateboarding. Later, maybe I will take a job in research because that interests me. I don't make a living with skateboarding. My sponsors don't give me money, just equipment."
13.American basketball player Michael Jordan has a coastal geography degree from the University of North Carolina.
He was nine credits away from graduating when he left to join the NBA in 1984, but he returned and completed his degree in 1986.
During a Q&A at the 20th annual Michael Jordan Flight School, he reportedly said, "I went to college. I got my degree in coastal geography. Everybody wants to know: What’s coastal geography? Well, it’s an introduction to meteorology. I always wanted to be the weatherman."
14.British rower Dame Katherine Grainger DBE CBE has several impressive degrees—a law degree from Edinburgh University, a master's degree in medical Law and medical ethics from Glasgow University, and a Ph.D. in the sentencing of homicide from King's College.
She completed her last degree in 2013.
She told British Rowing, "I wanted to be a lawyer – one of those idealistic ones who stands up in court and makes great speeches about truth, justice, and equality. Otherwise, maybe just an astronaut."
15.American soccer player Mia Hamm studied political science at the University of Alabama.
She graduated in 1994.
16.Chinese basketball player Yao Ming earned his economics degree from Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
He began his studies in 2011 and reportedly considered dropping out on multiple occasions, but he graduated in 2018.
17.American soccer player Megan Rapinoe got her sociology degree from the University of Portland.
She graduated in 2008.
18.Canadian gymnast Lise Leveille got her bachelor's in biomechanical engineering and human biology from Stanford, then earned her medical degree and completed her orthopedics residency at the University of British Columbia. She also earned a PhD in neuroscience from UBC.
She's currently a clinical assistant professor at UBC.
19.And finally, American speed skater Eric Heiden got his undergraduate and medical degrees from Stanford.
He graduated in 1984 and 1991, respectively.
He previously worked as a team physician for the NBA and the US Olympic speed skating and cycling teams. Currently, he's an orthopedic surgeon, and he runs a practice with his wife, Karen Drews.
He told the United States Olympic & Paralympic Museum, "Most of my patients have no clue that I had a career as an athlete and I kind of like that. Because that means they come to me for what I am known for today, which is to be a doctor and hopefully one of the best doctors that they can come visit. Being a sportsman is a wonderful life, but it’s entertainment, and what I do now, which is to help other human beings, is very rewarding.”
