Picture a professional athlete. If I had to guess, you’re probably imagining someone ripped, six-packed, and built like an IRL superhero. Someone like Cristiano Ronaldo:
But you know what? You don't have to look like Ronaldo to be an athlete. In fact, there have been a lot of incredible athletes who looked nothing like you'd expect, but didn't let that stop them. Check
'em out:<br/> <br/> 1. MAXI MORALEZ — the 5-foot-3, 115-pound A
rgentine soccer star
Maxi Moralez is more than half a foot shorter — and about 40 pounds lighter — than the average pro midfielder. He has the sort of body that usually gets filtered out of elite soccer long before adulthood. But Moralez would have none of that. He built his game around the advantages of being small: balance, quick turns, low center of gravity. His nickname is Frasquito — little flask. Small, but full. He was part of Argentina's U-20 FIFA World Cup-winning squad, earning the Silver Ball as second-best player, and had a long pro career. Last year, at age 38, he became the oldest field player to start all 34 matches of an MLS season since the league adopted that format in 2011. Even better? He is New York City FC's all-time leader in appearances, assists, and total goal contributions. The body that was never supposed to make it is still, at 39, the best player on
the field most nights.<br/> <br/> 2. ONEIL CRUZ — the Pittsburgh Pirates' 6-foot-7 s
tar who made history as a shortstop
On the flip side, shortstops have “short” in their name for a reason: they’re generally smaller, springy guys who can move right and left quickly. But Oneil Cruz, despite looking more like an NBA small forward, made his big league debut at the position in 2021 and immediately became the tallest player to ever play shortstop. He made it work with a combo of speed, arm strength, coordination, and sheer athleticism. Even his throws across the diamond felt different, like they were coming from somewhere above the game. He now plays center field, where his size and speed probably make more traditional sense, but I’ll always think
of him as the tallest shortstop ever.<br/> <br/> 3. CARSON PICKETT — the National Women's Socce
r League star born without a left hand and forearm
Pickett never let her difference stop her while growing up in Florida. She dominated on the high school soccer field, then went to Florida State, where she anchored a defense that allowed zero goals across the entire 2014 NCAA tournament on the way to the national championship. Next stop? The pros. She played for the NWSL's Orlando Pride and North Carolina Courage, and internationally for Brisbane Roar in Australia, where she was named Player of the Year. Famously, in 2019, after an Orlando Pride game, a two-year-old boy named Joseph stump-bumped Carson Pickett. Joseph had been born without his left forearm and hand, just like Pickett. His mother photogr
aphed the moment and the image went around the world.<br/>
<br/> 4. JIM ABBO
TT — the major league baseball pitcher born without a right hand
If you're the jaded sort, you might be thinking: That's cool, but she played soccer where you don't use your hands. If so, maybe Jim Abbott will impress you. Abbott was born with a right arm that ended at the wrist, but played baseball by learning to balance his glove on the end of that arm while pitching, then quickly slip it onto his left hand after releasing the pitch. Batters tried to bunt on him until they discovered he could field his position. Amazingly, he made it to the major leagues with the Angels. He went 18-11 with a 2.89 ERA and finished third in the 1991 AL Cy Young voting, and two years later he threw a no-hitt
er! He finished with 87 career wins across 10 major league seasons.<br/> <br/> 5. PETE GRAY — the major l
eague baseball outfielder who succeeded as a hitter despite only having one arm
I've got to tell you one more story about an athlete without a limb, because it's incredible. After Pearl Harbor, Pete Gray tried to enlist with the Army but they turned him down. Why? He'd lost his right arm as a boy, when he fell off the running board of a moving truck and the wheel caught his arm in its spokes. Despite this, the baseball-loving Gray developed a technique that let him catch the ball, tuck his glove under his stump, and throw the ball in. He could hit too, swinging the bat with his one hand. In 1944, after winning MVP in the minors, the St. Louis Browns bought his contract. Whether they believed in him as a ballplayer or a gate attraction was debated, but Gray was there to play either way, and spent time away from the field meeting with amputees returning from the war. His numbers were modest — a .218 average — and when the veterans came back
from overseas, he went back to the minors. Still, he was (and is) an inspiration.<br/> <
br/> 6. PAT GALLANT-CHARETTE — the open-water swimmer who set records despite being in her 60s
Sports favors young bodies, but Pat Gallant-Charette didn't start swimming open water until she was in her 40s, after two of her younger brothers died. She wanted to honor them by doing something hard, but she had no idea of how hard she was capable of going. A retired nurse and grandmother, Gallant-Charette spent her 60s and 70s in some of the coldest, most dangerous water on earth — spending 14, 17, 20, and sometimes 24 hours at a stretch in channels and lakes that have ended swims for athletes half her age. Most impressive? At 66, she became the oldest woman in history to cross the English Channel. Wait! This is even more impressive: at 67, she became the oldest person — male or female — to complete the Triple Crown of Open Water Swimming, the sport's most demanding three-event series (the English Channel, the Catalina Channel, and the 28-mile swim around Manhattan Island).
The average Triple Crowner is 43 years old. She was 6
7. Now in her 70s, she's still going strong.
7. MUGGSY BOGUES — the shortest player in NBA history
Bogues stood just 5-foot-3, but succeeded in the NBA, where the average player clears 6-foot-6. He was taken twelfth in the 1987 draft by the Bullets, which made Manute Bol, who stood 7-foot-7, his teammate.
The two men, the shortest and tallest players in league history, made a great pair, racking up assists (Bogues) and blocks (Bol). Bogues was such a good playmaker that he finished in the top seven in the league in assists six straight years. The size that everyone used against him turned out to be an asset. He was harder to trap than anyone in the league — too low, too quick, too elusive. Taller players couldn't get leverage on him. People may have
laughed when he stepped on the court as far back as junior high, but the la
ughter stopped once the game began.
8. SPUD WEBB — the 5-foot-7 basketball star who won an NBA Slam Dunk Contest
Webb was taller than Bogues, but is every bit as remarkable because of what he could do with the body he was given. He first dunked a basketball when he was 5-foot-3 — and not even in high school yet! — but scouts doubted him because of his size. However, when The Atlanta Hawks gave him a shot, he took advantage of it, having a very successful 12-year career driven by the pure refusal to be what people expected. He is most remembered, though, for winning the 1986 NBA Slam Dunk Contest,
when he defeated the 6-foot-8 defending champion Dominique Wilkins with an unf
orgettable reverse two-handed jam off a bounce.
9. MANUTE BOL — the 7-foot-7 NBA center with a talent for making three-pointers
The tallest NBA player ever weighed just 200 pounds, and looked — as one of his own nicknames put it — like a human pencil in sneakers. That didn't stop him from becoming one of the most prolific shot-blockers in the history of professional basketball. Initially, he didn't score much, but then came March 3, 1993. In a blowout loss, he started to shoot threes in the second half, and went 6-for-12! Later, as a member of the Golden State Warriors, shooting three-point
ers remained part of his game. Sadly, he died in 2010 at 4
7, of kidney failure, but his equally tall son, Bol Bol, now also plays in the NBA.
10. MARGO DYDEK — the tallest WNBA player ever at 7-foot-2
Being tall as a basketball player isn't exactly a disadvantage, but — like Bol — Dydek is fascinating for just how incredibly tall she was. Before the 1998 WNBA draft, she was listed in the league's official pre-draft materials as 6-foot-6. That was a clerical error. She was actually 7-foot-2! For the next decade, Dydek taught a lesson in what extreme height can become when it's paired with skill, coordination, and basketball intelligence. She finished her career with 877 blocks, still the al
l-time WNBA record, and earned two All-Star selections. Tragically, she died in 2011 at 37, after having a heart a
ttack while pregnant with her third child.
11. NAIM SÜLEYMANOĞLU — the three-time Olympic gold medal-winning weightlifting legend nicknamed "Pocket Hercules"
When most people think of weightlifting, they think of absolutely massive athletes. But at just 4-foot-10 and 132 pounds, Süleymanoğlu became a legend. The Turkish lifter won three consecutive Olympic gold medals — a first in weightlifting history — plus seven world championships and 46 world records. At the 1988 Seoul Olympics, he won his division by 30 kilograms and lifted more than three times his own body wei
ght in the clean and jerk, still the highest ratio ever recorded. His total was so dominant, in fact, th
at he had also out-lifted the winner of the weight class above him!
12. AMANDA BINGSON — the USA Track & Field hammer thrower who defied physical expectations for her sport
Bingson didn't fit the image of the absolutely toned and/or ripped track and field star, and she was the first to say so. "Dense would be the right word for me," she told ESPN. "My arm is just my arm — it's not cut, it's not sculpted. I don't have traps bulging out to my ears; I have a neck. I don't have a six-pack." In high school, a volleyball coach told her she could only stay on the team if she lost 30 pounds. She coul
dn't, so she was cut — even though, by her own account, she was better than girls who kept their spots. She f
ound hammer throw instead, and it took her all the way to the 2012 Olympics.
13. ANDY RUIZ JR. — the heavyweight champion who was described as looking like someone's uncle at the cookout
Andy Ruiz Jr.'s story should be a movie. At a listed 6-foot-2 and 268 pounds, he was shorter, rounder, and considerably less sculpted than the usual heavyweight. However, in 2019, he got the chance to fight Anthony Joshua, the undefeated, unified heavyweight champion of the world, who was 6-foot-6 and built like Superman. Making matters worse, Ruiz Jr. got the fight on just five weeks' notice after the original opponent failed multiple drug tests. He came in as a 25-to-1 underdog. But none of that appearance s
tuff mattered in the end. The self-professed "chubby" boxer defeated the bigger, more cut boxer b
y TKO in the seventh round to become the first boxer of Mexican heritage to hold the heavyweight title.
14. TRINDON HOLLIDAY — the 5-foot-5 football star unafraid of being tackled by men twice his size
Imagine weighing just 162 pounds and playing in the NFL, where it's the job of the biggest and strongest men in the world to crush you. That's what Holliday dared to do — and excel at. A two-sport star at LSU, Holliday won the 2009 NCAA outdoor 100-meter championship (so yeah, he was fast) while simultaneously playing football. In the 2012 NFL divisional playoffs, Holliday took the first punt he touched 90 yards for a touchdown — the longest punt return in NFL playoff history. Then he opened the second half by taking the kickoff 104 yards for another — the longes
t kickoff return in NFL playoff history! That made him the first player ever to return both a punt and a kickoff for
touchdowns in the same playoff game. Not bad for someone scouts doubted would make it in the pros.
15. BARTOLO COLÓN — the MLB hurler who won 247 games and pitched until he was 45 without a so-called "athletic" body
Bartolo Colón looked nothing like anyone's idea of a modern ace. Listed at 5-foot-11 and a very conservative 285 pounds, he had a soft, round build that made him stand out among his teammates. Did it matter? Nope — for 21 years, Colón was a thorn in batters' sides, using amazing control of his pitches to win a Cy Young Award and make an All-Star team in three different decades. Oh... and at age 42 he hit his first career home run! He finished his career with 247 wins, the winningest Latin American-born pitcher in major league history.