10 Asian American and Pacific Islander Athletes You Should Know

Sport: Football
Career years: 1996-2008
Accolades: 3x Super Bowl champion, 2x All-Pro, 2005 AP NFL Comeback Player of the Year

Tedy Bruschi is one of the NFL’s most courageous men, which isn’t a sentiment that—in a sport full of tough guys—is tossed around lightly. In 2005, Bruschi suffered a mild stroke. It left him partially paralyzed, forcing the Patriots defensive captain to sit out the beginning of the 2005 season. After receiving medical clearance in early October 2005, he was reinstated as defensive captain and returned on Oct. 30 against the Bills. Despite missing seven games, he still led the team in tackles, and was awarded with the AP NFL Comeback Player of the Year award and the Ed Block Courage Award. But it was his leadership from the sidelines that enabled his teammates to still finish the season atop the AFC East.

Sport: Gymnastics
Career years: 1994-2000
Accolades: 3x Olympic medalist, 1994 World Championship runner-up, 3x U.S. Senior Nationals medalist, United States Olympic Hall of Fame member

A member of the Magnificent Seven, Chow’s performance at the 1996 Olympics set the stage for future generations of star American female gymnasts. She excelled on the uneven bars, earning an individual Silver medal with a score of 9.837. She earned the U.S. major, invaluable points through her special performances in the uneven bars and the vault events. While her medals made her the first Asian American woman to medal in gymnastics, it was his her commitment and her drive to excel that resounds today.

In 2008, she became a pediatrics resident at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford, and in 2010, opened her own pediatrics practice in California. The Magnificent Seven will forever live in Olympic lore, making Chow one of the most important Asian American athletes ever. And the fact that she continues to give back to her community, shows just how much of an impact she’s made.

Sport: Diving
Career years: 1948-1952
Accolades: 3x Olympic medalist, United States Olympic Hall of Fame member

Sammy Lee is a trailblazer for Asian American athletes. Before storming the 1948 Olympics, Lee earned his M.D. from the University of Southern California School of Medicine to ensure a successful second-career after diving.

A year later, he found himself in London diving for Team USA. On the 10 meter platform, Lee won Gold, becoming the first Asian American to win Gold for the U.S. Four years later, he took home Gold again in Helsinki, becoming the first man to win back-to-back Gold medals in diving, continuing to set challenges for himself and improve. From Helsinki, Lee joined the Army to serve as a doctor during the Korean War. An M.D., Gold medalist, military veteran, Lee is, simply put, an exemplary American citizen.

Sport: Speed Skating
Career years: 1999-2010
Accolades: 2x Olympic Gold medalist, 2x Olympic Silver medalist, 4x Olympic Bronze medalist, 8x World Championship Gold medalist, 3x World Cup winner, 2008 World Champion

His father, a Japanese-born hair stylist who worked long shifts, was tired of seeing the younger Ohno become a latchkey kid, so he signed him up for competitive roller skating. When he was 12, his father had him try out short track speed skating after seeing it at the 1994 Olympics, and on the strength of his roller skating foundation, Ohno became an instant hit. He had his coming out party at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, taking Gold in the 1500 m race on home soil. Since then, he’s won seven additional Olympic medals.

Ohno’s success, engaging personality, and signature goatee has made him one of the Winter Olympics’ most recognizable athletes—a status that he’s used for philanthropic purposes, making a difference and giving back. He’s worked with the (PRODUCT)RED campaign to fight AIDS/HIV, the Salvation Army, the Ronald McDonald House, and with numerous charities, including his own in his home state of Washington. In retirement, Ohno’s transitioned into the entertainment sphere, most recently working as part of NBC’s 2014 Sochi Olympics coverage.

Sport: Basketball
Career years: 1947-1948
Accolades: 1944 NCAA Champion

Born in Utah in 1923, Wataru Misaka faced discrimination during the United States’ conflict with Japan in World War II. Throughout his teenage and collegiate years, he was denied service at restaurants, and was publicly shamed for his ethnicity. His outlet—the one place where he could be seen as an equal and take back the narrative—was the basketball court.

He led the University of Utah to the 1944 NCAA and 1947 NIT titles, but in between, he served as a staff sergeant in the military to contribute to the war effort. After being discharged, he was taken by the Knicks in the 1947 BAA Draft. His debut on Nov. 13, 1947 made him the first non-Caucasian player in American professional basketball history. He only played three games before being cut—a surprise early pink slip to which Misaka doesn’t attribute any racial discrimination. He figured that the team just had too many guards, and in his words, “Honestly, I think [Knicks owner] Ned Irish thought I could help at the gate.” That wouldn’t be the last time an owner would bring in an Asian player to generate some cultural buzz and cheap sales (Jeremy Lin’s stint with the Golden State Warriors comes to mind), but another Asian wouldn’t step on an NBA court for another 40 years.

Sport: Figure Skating
Career years: 1986-1992
Accolades: 1992 Olympic Champion, 2x World Figure Skating Champion, 1992 U.S. Figure Skating Champion, U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame member

With a tenacious work ethic and unwavering commitment, Kristi Yamaguchi is one of international figure skating’s true leaders. After a spell-binding period of winning and touring in the early ’90s, Yamaguchi created the Always Dream Foundation in 1996 to empower disadvantaged children by any means. Whether it’s funding after-school programs, improving classrooms, donating clothes to poor children, providing summer camps for kids with disabilities, or holding reading events, her foundation has been active and effective for 18 years now. Few athletes have been as committed to charitable causes for as long as Yamaguchi has.

Sport: Fighting
Career years: 1997-2012
Accolades: UFC Lightweight Champion, UFC Welterweight Champion, 2003 Lightweight Fighter of the Year, 2004 Welterweight Fighter of the Year, World Jiu-Jitsu Championship Gold medalist, black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

When it comes to the UFC, stardom doesn’t get much bigger than B.J. Penn. “The Prodigy” was the first American to win Gold at the World Jiu-Jitsu Championship, originally making a name for himself in the jiu-jitsu circuit. Upon moving to the UFC, he became one of the sport’s premier fighters. In the Lightweight division, he went undefeated for eight years, becoming the division’s first undisputed champion. He strived to excel and be the best—and he delivered.

Penn is very proud of his Hawaiian upbringing, and has identified with his Korean roots, even traveling to Korea from time to time to hold seminars about fighting. In 2012, UFC boss Dana White summed up Penn’s career perfectly: “He’s absolutely a Hall of Famer. Not only at the time when people were saying that the 55-pounders couldn’t headline pay-per-views and all this other stuff, B.J. Penn became a huge, huge star.”

Sport: Tennis
Career years: 1987-2003
Accolades: 1989 French Open Champion, International Tennis Hall of Fame member

The youngest ever Major singles champion has been a guiding force for Asian tennis players for over two decades, personifying leadership traits such as integrity, enthusiasm, and unselfishness. While active, Chang took on plenty of charitable endeavors. In 1994, he was named Chairman of ATP Tour Charities. A year later, he was named “Most Caring Athlete” by USA Today. Two years after that, A Magazine presented him with a leadership award for his role model status, attained through successful play, a clean image, and grassroots youth tennis development in Asia.

In retirement, Chang’s gone on to found the Chang Family Foundation to help support youth sports, and taken up coaching rising Japanese tennis player Kei Nishikori. Aspiring professional Asian tennis players couldn’t ask for a better hero than Chang.

Sport: Basketball
Career years: 2010-Present
Accolades: Linsanity, 2012 NBA Rising Star

Jeremy Lin is a solid NBA point guard and very much a floor general, but above that, he’s an inspiration to the millions of Asian American kids who have felt slighted on the court because of his or her racial background. Linsanity alone has earned him a spot here, because of the tremendous frenzy it created, the fact that it directly contributed to ending a contract dispute between MSG and Time Warner Cable, and because his turn in the spotlight forced Americans to figure out how to talk about racism against Asians. And Linsanity only happened because Lin refused to give up on his dreams.

Grantland’s Jay Caspian Kang was spot-on when he wrote, “It’s true that racism against Asians does not ‘count’ as much as other racisms in this country.” In the wake of cheap, but offensive, jokes directed at Lin (namely the “Chink in the Armor” headline), we created a new filter for Asian Americans and the question of race—a piece of influence that cannot be understated. There’s much more work to be done, but Lin started the conversation.

Sport: Figure Skating
Career years: 1994-2006
Accolades: 2x Olympic medalist, 5x World Champion, 9x U.S. Champion, Most Decorated Figure Skater in U.S. History

Michelle Kwan has been a winner on the ice and in the community, both locally and internationally. Widely considered the greatest American figure skater ever and one of the world’s best at her peak, Kwan’s decade-long reign from her first World Championship in 1996 to her last U.S. Championship in 2005 made her one of the most popular athletes in any sport. After having surgery to repair a torn labrum in 2006, she took time away from the sport to pursue an education in international diplomacy and foreign affairs.

Her degrees have been quickly put to test, as Kwan began work as an unpaid public diplomacy ambassador for the White House in 2006. Since then, she hasn’t looked back to the ice. In 2012, after leading diplomatic missions to both Singapore and China, she was officially hired as a Senior adviser for public diplomacy and public affairs. Determined to make a local impact too, she’s worked with Figure Skating in Harlem, and was recently honored by the organization. Kwan is the model example of a star athlete using their status and work ethic to transcend sport and make a global impact.