Which athlete won Olympic gold in both boxing and bobsleigh?

Eddie Eagan won Olympic gold in both boxing and bobsleigh.

Eagan won the light-heavyweight boxing title at the 1920 Antwerp Olympics. Twelve years later, he returned to Olympic competition as a member of the United States four-man bobsleigh team that won gold at the 1932 Lake Placid Games.

This achievement made Eagan the only competitor to win gold at both the Summer and Winter Olympics in different sports. The distinction is especially notable because boxing and bobsleigh require very different skills: boxing depends on technical combat and endurance, while bobsleigh combines explosive starts, driving and teamwork on ice.

Eagan studied law at Harvard and later became a lawyer and judge. His Olympic story is sometimes confused with Jim Thorpe’s, who won both the pentathlon and decathlon at the 1912 Summer Olympics. Eagan’s unique record involves separate Olympic seasons and separate sports, not two events at one Games.