As ‘surreal’ becomes real, Miami’s Eddy Alvarez can join rare group during Tokyo Olympics
The simple fact that Eddy Alvarez is going back to the Olympics, that he gets to represent the United States on an international level again, is one he doesn’t take lightly.
The Miami native, first-generation Cuban American, member of the Miami Marlins organization, Christopher Columbus High alumnus and father of one has a chance to join a select group of athletes to earn a medal at both the Summer and Winter Olympics. He already has a silver medal from the 2014 Winter Olympics as a short-track speed skater in Sochi, Russia. He could win another with the United States during the next two weeks, this time on the baseball diamond in Tokyo.
But Alvarez, 31, has one important task to accomplish in Tokyo before he steps on the field July 30 when the United States opens group play in the six-team baseball tournament against Israel.
On Friday, Alvarez and women’s basketball star Sue Bird will lead the United States’ contingent of 621 athletes into Tokyo’s National Stadium as the country’s flag bearer for the 2021 Olympics’ Opening Ceremony.
“This means everything to me,” Alvarez, fighting back tears, said when given the news Tuesday. “To be able to lead Team USA is an absolute honor. There’s a lot of sacrifices I’ve made in this life, in my athletic career. Just absolutely honored.”
Three days earlier, Alvarez had said that simply having his name considered for being Team USA’s flag bearer — “to hold Old Glory, a symbol of freedom and liberty to many around the world, not just the United States” — was “a victory of its own.”
Alvarez also hopes it’s just the first victory in Tokyo. He’s relishing the chance to get on an Olympic podium again — and a chance to win the gold medal that eluded him the first time.
“It’s starting to feel real now,” Alvarez said. “For a while, it felt surreal. It’s just great to put this uniform back on. It feels like home.”
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One doesn’t have to look far to see what this opportunity means to Alvarez.
The five intertwined rings symbolic of the Olympics are tattooed on his left bicep and etched on the nob of his baseball bats.
They’re a reminder of the opportunity afforded to him because of sacrifices from his parents, Walter and Mabel, who immigrated from Cuba.
“They got out for a chance at an opportunity and freedom,” Alvarez said. “Because of them, I’m able to put on this uniform and represent this country. Because of them, I’m able to basically have a freedom of speech.”
They’re also a reminder of that first run he had to represent his country seven years ago, the opportunity in front of him to do it again and the legacy he can leave in the process.
There have been 136 athletes who have participated in at least one Summer and one Winter Olympic Games. Only five all-time have won at least one medal in both.
University of Miami alumna Lauryn Williams, whom Alvarez refers to as a dear friend, was the most recent to accomplish the feat after she won silver in the two-woman bobsleigh at the 2014 Olympics to go along with her two track and field medals (400 meter relay gold in 2012 and 100 meters silver in 2004). Canada’s Clara Hughes (cycling and speed skating), Germany’s Christa Luding-Rothenburger (cycling and speed skating), Norway’s Jacob Tullin Thams (sailing and ski jumping) and the United States’ Eddie Eagan (boxing and bobsleigh) are the others.
“I consider this elite group of athletes some of the greatest athletes to ever walk this planet,” Alvarez said. “I didn’t know that I was going to ever make it this far. I was always willing to put in the work and the sacrifice to do so, but to potentially be part of that exclusive club would be a dream come true.”
His opportunity to make that happen comes thanks to baseball making its return to the Olympics for the first time since the 2008 Games in China.
But the United States’ roster isn’t necessarily one littered with All-Stars and Gold Glove winners. Active players who are on 40-man rosters for any of the 30 Major League Baseball teams were ineligible for the Olympics.
With that, the United States’ team consists of a mix of free agent big-leaguers (such as infielder Todd Frazier, one-time Marlins pitcher Edwin Jackson and pitcher David Robertson), former MLB players who are playing internationally (like Miami native pitcher Nick Martinez, outfielder Tyler Austin and one-time Marlins pitcher Scott McGough, all of whom are playing in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball league this year), top 100 prospects (such as the Boston Red Sox’s Triston Casas and Tampa Bay Rays’ Shane Baz) and other MLB prospects identified by Team USA to round out the 24-man roster.
That last group includes prospects such as Alvarez, a 5-9, 185-pound, switch-hitting infielder who once upon a time delayed his chance to pursue a professional baseball career in order to live out a juxtaposing athletic dream.
Cleats, bats and gloves were replaced with a pair of skates. Instead of dirt and grass beneath his feet, it was an oval of ice.
“What he has accomplished so far is extraordinary,” Team USA baseball manager Mike Scioscia said. “I know that he’s very excited to hopefully help us get to our goal and if he does or if we do or if we don’t, it doesn’t take away from what he has done or what he’s accomplished. He’s an Olympian in the Winter Games and the Summer Games.”
Alvarez has been playing baseball since he was 5 years old, which was also about the same time that he received his first pair of skates as a Christmas gift.
He moved to the ice at age 9 and tried to balance both sports.
As he neared the end of his high school career at Miami’s Christopher Columbus High, Alvarez found himself at a juncture.
A scholarship offer to play baseball at St. Thomas University ... or try to qualify for the upcoming 2010 Winter Olympics.
The kid nicknamed “Eddy the Jet” (who now has an 11-month-old son named Jett) chose the Olympics.
He won gold at the World Junior Short Track Speed Skating Championships in 2009 but fell short of qualifying for the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver.
He ventured back to baseball in 2011, playing at Salt Lake Community College in Utah, before undergoing surgery on both knees in early 2012 and ultimately getting the itch to make one more run at the Olympics.
When Alvarez qualified for the Sochi Games, he became the first Cuban-American male speed skater to make the U.S. Olympic team.
He had three chances to make his mark as an individual on the short track.
The 1,500 meters? Disqualified in the semifinals.
The 1,000 meters? A skater fell in front of him in the quarterfinals and he crashed into the wall in the aftermath.
The 500 meters? He fell on the first turn of his first heat and couldn’t recover.
On the final day of events, after striking out on three individual events, Alvarez got his medal as part of Team USA’s 5,000-meter relay. The United States settled for silver in a back-and-forth race, losing to the host Russians by less than three-tenths of a second.
Being on the podium was great even if the runner-up finish brings back some mixed emotions years later as he prepares to compete on the international stage once again.
“When you’re so close to winning and you have to stand on the podium and listen to someone else’s anthem, it leaves just a little bit of that bittersweet feeling,” Alvarez said. “This trip is like a second chance. I’m going with this to absolutely leave it on the field.”
Which brings Alvarez to Tokyo and back to the Olympics — this time, though, on the baseball diamond.
The Olympic baseball tournament starts with the six teams divided into two three-team groups. Team USA’s group stage games are on July 30 against Israel and July 31 against South Korea. Japan, Mexico and the Dominican Republic round out the field.
After the group stage, it’s four days of knockout rounds that will narrow the field to four teams for the semifinals. The medal games are on Aug. 7, two days after the one-year anniversary of Alvarez making his MLB debut for his hometown Marlins.
Alvarez played in 12 games that season, going 7 for 37 at the plate with a double, two stolen bases and six runs scored. He has spent all of 2021 with Miami’s Triple A affiliate, the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp, and off the Marlins’ 40-man roster in order to maintain his eligibility to compete in the Olympics.
“He’s a guy that like a lot of the younger guys last year got some experience,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said. “I do think this guy’s a big-league player. ... Happy for Eddy for what he’s going to get the chance to do [at the Olympics], but I also look at Eddy as a guy that’s going to play in the big leagues.”
Alvarez does hope to get another chance to play in the big leagues. He admits to dealing with “a lot of noise” during his first stint with the Marlins, which came after the club dealt with a coronavirus outbreak at the start of the season, and that he is still working to slow the game down.
“I know,” Alvarez said, “that if that time comes — when it comes — I’m going to be ready.”
Before that, he’s ready for another chance to win a gold medal.
“My personal goal is to go off,” Alvarez said. “I’m gonna do everything in my power to win games and I know all the other guys around me are in the same boat. Whatever it takes.”
This story was originally published July 21, 2021 at 8:52 AM.
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