Eddy Alvarez is part of the USA Baseball team in the Tokyo Olympics, but his first sport was speedskating. As a young boy, Alvarez would visit a beach in Miami with a skating strip, where he would show off his skating moves. Upon seeing him, two women approached his parents, encouraging them to let their son try speedskating. He did well in the sport and enjoyed it, but he also enjoyed playing baseball. By high school, Eddy felt that he was spread thin between two sports and decided that he should choose a sport to concentrate on and get better at it (via Team USA). "That's when I made my first true, huge, life decision: quitting skating and concentrating on baseball," he said.
However, that was not the end of Eddy's skating career. In 2006, Eddy was watching the Olympic qualifiers when he recognized some of the skaters competing. Those were the same athletes that he used to compete with, and knowing that he beat them before, he realized that he just might have a chance at getting into the Olympics. And so, with a new determination, he returned to skating just so he can tell himself that he tried. At that time, speedskating took priority over baseball.
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