Andy Warhol’s 1977 portrait series depicting ten famous athletes is titled *Athletes*.
Warhol created the series after being commissioned by the collector Richard Weisman. The project presented prominent sports figures as celebrity images, extending Warhol’s interest in fame beyond film stars, musicians, politicians, and royalty.
The athletes included figures such as Muhammad Ali, Pelé, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and O. J. Simpson. Warhol photographed the subjects and transformed the images into silkscreen portraits, using repetition, color, and cropping to emphasize their public identities.
The series is sometimes confused with Warhol’s later portraits of athletes made for individual commissions. *Athletes* specifically refers to the 1977 group of ten sports personalities and is an important example of Warhol applying Pop Art methods to sports celebrity.