AW collaboration

Training to become an elite-level athlete in one discipline, and all the sacrifices that go with it, is one thing. But to become a top star in two different sports? That is another league altogether.

Devon Allen could make his debut for NFL franchise Philadelphia Eagles in 2023 – just two years after he reached the final of the 110-metre hurdles at the Tokyo Olympics.

You might expect an athlete to be reaching the end of one career before they switch to another, but not Allen: he is still one of the fastest hurdlers in the world, and he hasn’t joined any old American football franchise – the Eagles reached Super Bowl LVII earlier this year, losing out 35-38 to the Kansas City Chiefs.

So will Allen be able to juggle the demands of two top-tier sporting careers?

Practice Makes Perfect

After their respective successes during the 2022 season, the Chiefs and the Eagles have been installed as the favourites for those that bet on sports for the Super Bowl next February at odds of 6/1 and 8/1 respectively.

So if Allen can break into the main Eagles roster, he could become the first athlete in history to win the Super Bowl and an Olympic gold medal in the same year.

For now, the 28-year-old has signed a rookie contract with the Eagles that will take him through until 2025, although this isn’t a player that is completely new to American football.

While at the University of Oregon, Allen combined his track and field exploits with a series of games for the Oregon Ducks – in 2014, he won the 110-metre title at the NCAA championships while recording seven touchdowns and 684 yards as a wide receiver out on the football field.

Allen’s natural speed and size – he’s a big guy at 6ft 1in and 190lb – lend themselves perfectly for ‘explosive’ sports, which is perhaps why the Eagles were so keen to take a look at him in their practice squad ahead of the 2023 NFL season.

Costly Mistake

The next two years will be vital in the athletic career of Devon Allen.

He is, perhaps, still best remembered for that catastrophic false start in the World Championship final last year. The 28-year-old was adjudged to have started 0.099 of a second ahead of the gun – a disastrous way to bow out of a competition he was expected to medal at.

NFL receiver Devon Allen kicked out of world 110m hurdles final after false start https://t.co/8uNQ6aYTBX

— Guardian news (@guardiannews) July 18, 2022

In 2021, he’d become just the thirteenth American to break the 13-second barrier for the 110-metre hurdles – the same year Allen came agonizingly close to securing the bronze medal at the Olympic Games.

The Worlds in Budapest this August, plus the Paris Olympics next summer, will perhaps provide Allen with a swansong to his athletics career – it would be fitting if he could finally get his hands on the medals that his raw talent deserve.

After Paris, it’s possible that Allen will hang up his spikes and go all-in on his burgeoning American football career – continuing his progression as one of the most impressive athletes on the planet.