The cool air in Atlanta on Sunday morning quickly forced the sleep out of my eyes. It was time to go back to doing what I know how to do best. It was time to act like an athlete.

The basketball season ended last weekend, something that means little more to my schedule than the fact that my weekends are now likely to consist of track meets and road races, instead of basketball tournaments. Who needs an offseason? To me an offseason means being forced to shake off the fatigue of a basketball season and attempt to pull myself together for the first track meet of the season.

It was a somewhat unfortunate realization that chilly Atlanta morning, dancing in the infield of the track, that track, unlike basketball, is an outdoor event forcing you to deal with the elements. My hands were ice when I hopped in my chair for warm-ups and my arms would not let me forget that my body was tired.

It wasn’t until I made my way over to the staging area for the 200m, the first event of the morning, that I began to remember why I was there, why I still insist on competing in racing as well as basketball. When the gun went up, with me sitting on the starting line fighting to control my breathing and the adrenaline coursing through my body, I knew I could never give this up.

This is why I love racing. This is why I don’t mind playing in the national championships for basketball one weekend and then hopping a plane to Atlanta for a track meet the next. This is why I refuse to quit one sport in favor of the other.

The choice to do both is not always an easy one to make, though. When asked what sport I like better, basketball or racing, my standard answer is, “It depends on the season.” During basketball season when I have to force myself to squeeze in a few racing workouts a week in an attempt to lose as little of my base fitness as possible, I hate racing. Likewise, during the racing season when I have to force myself to get into the gym to shoot, or when I have to follow a 15-mile run with some scrimmage time, I’m not the biggest fan of basketball.

Ask me to pick one – I have been asked before – I can’t do it. Ask me what my athletic goals are, and you’ll find equal aspirations.

People question my decision to continue to compete in both sports. They claim that by doing both I will never reach my maximum potential in either sport (I was told this past weekend that if I continued to play basketball I would never race at more than 97 percent of my potential). But what does that missing three percent mean? Who’s to say that an athlete’s goal in a sport is to maximize their potential? Why can’t an athlete strive to do something that very few athletes would be able to do?

Jeremy Bloom has received a fair share of national attention in the field of two-sport athletes. Bloom went from skiing moguls in the Winter Olympics to sprinting 40s at NFL combines, fighting for a draft spot. Though he may still be drafted, his performance in the Olympics was disappointing. Entering the freestyle moguls as a gold medal favorite, Bloom failed to medal. Could his performance have been affected because he was trying to do too much – prepare for the Olympics and tryouts at the same time? Possibly. But would it have been amazing if Bloom won a gold medal and then went on to the NFL three months later? I can guarantee Bloom doesn’t regret training the way he did, and trying to accomplish both feats.

If an athlete is capable of playing two sports at the highest level, the Olympics and the NFL for example, nobody has the right to tell them to choose. If their bodies can withstand the strain of never having an offseason and having to be ready for anything, than they deserve to compete in whatever they are capable of.

As for me, I don’t plan on becoming a one-sport athlete anytime soon. My goal this summer: a gold medal in the World Championships for basketball and a gold medal in the World Championships for racing. We’ll see if it happens, but no one can tell me that it’s not a worthy goal.

Josh George is a senior in Communications. He can be reached at [email protected].