No matter what the result is Saturday morning for the U.S. baseball team in the gold medal game against Japan, Eddy Alvarez will make history. 

Alvarez is assured to become just the third American to medal in both the Winter and Summer Olympics. An infielder on the baseball team, the 31-year-old Alvarez won a silver medal as a speed skater during the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi. Now, after a 7-2 win over South Korea in the semifinals, Alvarez will at worst win another silver and join Eddie Eagan (bobsled in 1932, boxing in 1920) and Lauryn Williams (bobsled in 2014, track and field in 2004 and 2012) as Olympians who medaled in both seasons. 

“I got emotional because it was a lot of sacrifice,” Alvarez said. “I still can’t believe it. I know the job’s not done yet because, at the end of the day, one of the only reasons why I came out here is for redemption, to win a gold medal.” 

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His skating team in 2014 finished second behind Russia in the 5,000-meter relay. However, three of the four Russian gold medalists were banned from the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics because of suspicions of doping. After the 2014 Games, Alvarez returned to baseball, and has played professionally since in the White Sox and Marlins’ minor league systems. Last year, he appeared in 12 games for the Marlins. 

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