Seven people who are disgustingly good at more than one sport

It's official. Having hung up his football boots in May 2015, Rio Ferdinand has officially swapped the pitch for the ring and announced he's going to launch a pro boxing career.

The former Manchester United and England defender had been busying himself as a TV pundit and has his own clothing line.

"I'm doing this because it's a challenge," he said. "I've won titles and now I'm aiming for a belt."

He has posted several social media videos in recent months showing him boxing, external and working with personal trainer Mel Deane.

When most people retire they take up life-drawing or get an allotment. Not Ferdinand...

To those of us for whom excelling in more than one field means being able to keep up with the plots in an episode of Game of Thrones, whilst simultaneously diarising our dinner on Instagram, the sight of one of England's most consistent defenders being (it turns out) really good at another sport will fill us with the kind of rage that could almost inspire us to put down our smartphones and, actually, y’know, do something…

But it turns out there’s loads of them – these ridiculously talented sporting polymaths.

Here’s just a few examples…

Stephen Curry (basketball). Also good at…golf

In the list, external of single-season three-point field-goal leaders, the top five leading scores are four entries with the name ‘Stephen Curry’.

For the uninitiated, that translates thus: Stephen 'Steph' Curry is dead, dead good at shooting. In fact, he’s been talked about, external as the NBA’s greatest ever shooter.

Curry played golf in high school, and has played in celebrity golf tournaments before, so it came as no real surprise when he made his professional golfing debut earlier this summer at the Ellie Mae Classic on the Web.com Tour.

He finished with a four-over-par 74, and even managed, external to land a ball into the cup holder of a golf cart…

Unfortunately, we don’t think that was intentional…

Daniel Cormier (UFC). Also good at…wrestling

It’s not really anything new for a UFC fighter to have come from another martial arts discipline, but perhaps one of the most remarkable examples is Daniel Cormier.

Widely considered one of the greatest mixed martial artists of all time, Cormier moved over from Olympic wrestling into UFC in 2013.

Almost two decades earlier, he’d won a bronze medal in the world championships in Greco-Roman wrestling, which tells a tale of quite a long career spent beating people up/having the favour returned.

He must be cream-crackered.

He also played All-State football in high school and turned down a scholarship in American football in order to pursue wrestling…

Bradley Wiggins (cycling). Also good at…rowing

Britain’s most decorated Olympian, Sir Bradders Wiggo, retired from cycling in 2016, presumably because he was bored of winning pretty much everything there was to win in the sport.

The plan was for him to go on Channel 4’s The Jump, but that dream ended, external with a foot injury in training. At least he avoided the hot humiliation of losing out to eventual series winner Spencer-off-Made-in-Chelsea.

Instead, Wiggins took up rowing ‘as a hobby’ and then proceeded to get so good at it that he’s now hoping to compete in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics as a rower. He’ll be 40 at that stage.

"I might be being a bit delusional, but the [rowing] times suggest I'm not," he said.

Katie Taylor (boxing). Also good at…football

To date, she’s won five consecutive gold medals in boxing at the Women’s World Championships, and six gold medals at the European Championships.

Which all just goes to show that she was right to ignore her dad when he opined that she should throw in the towel on her boxing career - just before she went on to win Ireland’s first Olympic gold of the London 2012 Games.

To be fair to the old fella, he just thought she should think about taking up one of those offers to play from various football clubs, including, external Arsenal.

Before stepping in the ring, Taylor had already represented the Republic of Ireland at football a number of times.

To those of us for whom a tough choice means curry night or chippie night, Taylor’s dilemma will seem particularly galling.

C.B Fry (cricket). Also good at…football and long-jump

‘All-rounder’ is a term that gets batted around a bit in cricket (pun intended).

One cricket international that really does deserve the moniker, though, is Charles Burgess Fry, who represented the national team in both cricket and football, played for Southampton FC in an FA Cup Final, equalled the then world-record at long jump, and played Rugby Union at university level.

Stop it.

It’s also claimed, external he could jump backwards onto a mantelpiece from a standing position. Quite amazing that there would be any space left on the mantelpiece for him amongst all those trophies and various heraldic symbols of high achievement. Either way, we wonder who was the first person to invite him to perform that particular party trick in the middle of their living room?

Michael Jordan (basketball). Also good at…baseball

Alright, Michael Jordan didn’t have the most glittering baseball career. He’s not exactly synonymous with the sport in the way that he is with basketball. There won’t be a sequel to Space Jam (whose original website, external incredibly still remains unchanged), where Jordan does ‘Field of Dreams’ with Bugs Bunny.

Nevertheless, considering he picked up a bat, external aged 31, after more than a 10-year hiatus from playing the sport in any competitive capacity, and went on to compete professionally, is not bad for a game of soldiers really...

Mildred 'Babe' Didrikson Zaharias (golf). Also good at…everything!

Probably the greatest polymath in this list, and possibly one of the greatest sportspeople of all time.

She won two gold medals in track and field at the 1932 Olympics (80m hurdles and javelin), before going pro in golf and subsequently winning ten major LPGA championships.

She also earned the nickname 'Babe' after some childhood heroics on the baseball field, in homage, of course, to Mr. Ruth.

It must have been a nightmare to be one of Babe’s friends, colleagues, siblings, or even contemporaries. Not to mention her husband, the wrestler George Zaharis, who must not have suffered from that famously fragile male ego, or minded residing in her impressive shadow. In 1939, the couple’s marriage was reported thus in Time Magazine:

“Married. Mildred ("Babe") Didrikson, famed woman athlete, 1932 Olympic Games track & field star, expert basketball player, golfer, javelin thrower, hurdler, high jumper, swimmer, baseball pitcher, football halfback, billiardist, tumbler, boxer, wrestler, fencer, weight lifter, adagio dancer; and George Zaharias, heavyweight wrestler; in St. Louis.”

And she managed to achieve all this in a lifetime that only lasted 45 years. Crikey, we’ll pat ourselves on the back if we manage to conquer an aqua zumba class by then.

Sound insufferable don’t they?

Now then, back to the important issue: chippie tea or curry night?