For skilled athletes, it takes precision, resilience and excellence to compete on a nationwide—and even worldwide—degree. Some athletes have taken that drive and targeted it on constructing legacies that stretch past their sport. Whether or not launching a successful brand or sharing insights into their on a regular basis lives, these 15 athletes have triumphantly transitioned from sports activities icons to savvy entrepreneurs.
Candace Parker
Basketball
The seven-time All-Star, three-time WNBA champion and two-time Olympian modified the face of girls’s basketball all through her 16-year career along with her management and athleticism. (She was the primary girl to dunk in an NCAA event.) Parker is the one WNBA participant to win MVP and Rookie of the 12 months in the identical season. After her WNBA retirement, Parker’s long-running partnership with adidas morphed into her turning into the model’s president of its girls’s basketball division, the place she’s elevating the way forward for girls’s sports activities via revolutionary methods and empowering initiatives.
Amanda Sorensen
Motorsports
At simply 22 years previous, the racecar driver is already making historical past inside the historically male-dominated sport with precision, energy and perseverance. She’s one in every of three feminine Formula DRIFT drivers and the primary girl to earn a podium place within the league. Sorensen began driving go-karts at age 6, successful her first championship at 9. After switching to off-road competitors at 11, she gained two titles by 16, and found the artwork of drifting. Today, you’ll discover her behind the Air Power ProSpec automobile and on social media (with greater than 3 million followers throughout platforms), the place she goals to inspire younger girls to sort out unconventional profession paths.
Brian Shaw
Strongest Man on Earth
The decorated strongman competitor reworked a distinct segment sport right into a bustling enterprise, cementing his place as one of many best energy icons of all time. Shaw, at a staggering 6 ft, 8 inches and weighing 470 kilos at his heaviest, pioneered a brand new period of strongman coaching that led to greater than 25 world data, 4 World’s Strongest Man titles and a spot within the Worldwide Sports activities Corridor of Fame. Shaw has expanded his model into a number of profitable companies, together with Shaw Energy, Undefined Diet and Evolution Athletics. Undefined Diet is well known as one of many fastest-growing sports activities complement manufacturers within the USA and worldwide. By means of Shaw Energy, Shaw shares a curated look into his coaching strategies and on a regular basis life. Evolution Athletics advanced from Shaw slicing and stitching his personal weightlifting equipment for competitors.
Matt Lombardi and Kevin Moran
Triathletes
Lombardi and Moran have pushed their our bodies and minds to the brink of excellence and supreme efficiency as former professional athletes, avid CrossFit opponents, IRONMAN triathletes and marathoners. Finally, the literal aches and pains of this way of life began to take its toll, main them on a seek for a treatment. They based Boston-based efficiency wellness model Beam to fulfill their very own wants and expectations. Beam’s science-backed merchandise—like Beam Dream, Beam Greens and their newest collaboration with Shawn Johnson East, Beam Youngsters—assist individuals enhance their bodily and psychological wellness. Furthermore, their merchandise have helped athletes higher perceive and entry CBD.
Allyson Felix
Monitor and Subject
The most decorated track and field athlete in historical past is utilizing her platform to uplift feminine athletes and struggle for maternity care and advantages. The Olympian-turned-entrepreneur and advocate began sportswear firm Saysh in 2021, two years after longtime sponsor Nike imposed a 70% pay reduce after she turned pregnant. (Felix’s story led to public outcry, a congressional inquiry, and a brand new maternity coverage for Nike’s sponsored athletes.)
Now, Felix helps collegiate {and professional} feminine athletes safe identify, picture and likeness (NIL) offers via her administration firm, All the time Alpha. Felix continues to be a champion. However, this time, it’s on behalf of different girls.
Simone Biles
Gymnastics
Biles is taken into account one of many greatest gymnasts of all time, and he or she has the {hardware} to again it up with 41 Olympic and World Championship medals. Since her 2013 Olympic debut, Biles has dominated the game. Up to now, there are 5 signature abilities named after her, and he or she was the primary girl to win six all-around World Championship titles. However Biles has additionally used her platform to advocate for foster care, sexual abuse survivors and psychological well being. (Her abrupt withdrawal from the 2020 Olympics sparked a crucial dialog about prioritizing psychological well being simply as importantly as bodily well being.) Manufacturers like K18 hair merchandise have taken discover of Bile’s excellence. In 2021, she entered into an exclusive partnership with female-focused attire model Athleta.
Zach Hyman
Hockey
On the ice, because the Edmonton Oilers left wing, Hyman has made a reputation for himself along with his work ethic and scoring prowess. (He scored a profession excessive 54 objectives in the course of the 2023-2024 season.) He’s turn into a fan favourite as a first-shot scorer and for his relentless play. Off the ice, Hyman is a kids’s writer and founder and president of Toronto-based Eleven Holdings Corp., a gaming and media holding firm that owns and operates a portfolio of esports and gaming companies.
Chukky Okobi
Okobi spent almost a decade in the NFL, the place he gained Tremendous Bowl XL with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Now, he’s sharing what he discovered on and off the sector from one of many world’s most profitable sports activities organizations as a mindfulness coach and motivational speaker. His mantra is targeted: It’s a must to change your self first to vary what’s happening round you. Okobi makes use of his background to assist people, leaders and companies unlock their potential and develop the high-performance habits of a Tremendous Bowl champion.
Andrew East and Shawn Johnson East
This husband-and-wife duo are former elite athletes who’ve turn into entrepreneurs with a New York Occasions-praised podcast, Couple Issues, and a family-focused media firm, FamilyMade Media. Andrew is a former NFL lengthy snapper, whereas Shawn is a four-time Olympic medalist who returned to the 2024 Olympic Video games as a Yahoo commentator. The couple has generated an enormous following (12 million throughout their social platforms) for his or her trustworthy, clear conversations about marriage and parenting. Final summer season, forward of the Olympics, the Easts donated $250,000 to create the Second Makers Grants, which helped ease the monetary burdens Olympic and Paralympic athlete dad and mom expertise in attempting to get to the video games.
Jonathan Cheever
Snowboarding
Cheever is a world-class athlete, Olympic snowboarder and second-generation grasp plumber—an surprising mixture of talent, grit and willpower. He’s an anomaly in a sport the place high snowboarders typically come from rich households. In the meantime, Cheever supported himself along with his household commerce. He spent 16 years on the U.S. Snowboard Crew, the place he discovered the depths of perseverance and chasing success. These classes have translated off the slopes, too, as Cheever runs a profitable plumbing and heating business in Park Slope, Utah, along with his associate Madeleine Soule. “Success is constructed one small win at a time,” Cheever says. “And it’s important to embrace each step, even the onerous ones.”
David Beckham
Soccer
Revered as the most effective midfielders to ever play the sport, Beckham has been a defining pressure since his 1992 debut with Manchester United at 17 years previous. However his affect has expanded far past the pitch. As probably the most sought-after athletes, he’s endorsed manufacturers starting from Armani and Maserati to Gillette and Stella Artois. In 2003, adidas provided him a $160 million lifetime sponsorship contract, securing his place within the cultural zeitgeist. Lately, Beckham has unleashed his entrepreneurial facet, founding Inter Miami CF and Studio 99, which produced Netflix’s Emmy-winning docuseries, Beckham. Now, he’s honing in on the candy facet of life with a brand new honey enterprise, which began as a passion on his Cotswold property. (He’s even made honey for King Charles III.)
Kim Mulkey
Basketball Coach
Mulkey’s vogue decisions are as daring as her teaching model, with each drawing eyes to the sidelines and sometimes going viral. However don’t be fooled by the feathers, sequins and 3D basketball hoop skirt. Mulkey at the moment has the richest whole contract in girls’s school basketball along with her $32 million, 10-year contract with Louisiana State College. She’s price it: Mulkey led Baylor College’s girls’s basketball staff to a few nationwide championships; she’s simply getting began at LSU, the place she coached the staff to the 2023 title. Earlier than she was a sports activities headline fixture, Mulkey was the scrappy, 5-foot, 4-inch level guard who helped lead Louisiana Tech College to 2 nationwide titles and 4 Closing Fours between 1980-1984.
Conor McGregor
UFC Champion
The Irish combined martial artist fighter is without doubt one of the largest stars in UFC historical past, having gained champion titles in two weight courses—concurrently. Regardless of his controversial and sometimes brash conduct, McGregor has amassed a big draw to the game, headlining the highest six most-bought pay-per-view occasions for UFC. McGregor has discovered success exterior of the Octagon, increasing his model as an entrepreneur and restaurateur, with a portfolio that features The Black Forge Inn in Dublin.
This text initially appeared within the July/August 2025 concern of SUCCESS® magazine. Photograph of Allyson Felix from Getty Photographs.
