Ex-Olympian Jeremy Bloom Retires

Jeremy Bloom had the athletic talent to be both a professional downhill skier and a Division I punt returner, and he had the wherewithal to stand up to the NCAA when it prevented him from doing both simultaneously. This week Bloom announced that he's retiring from competitive sports, and it's a good time to remember an athlete who had a career unlike any other.

Bloom became a professional skier as a teenager and also got a football scholarship to Colorado, but his college football career was cut short when he lost a suit against the NCAA, which told him he couldn't accept sponsorship money from his skiing. He competed in the 2006 Winter Olympics and was drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles a couple months later.

Bloom never won an Olympic medal and never played in a regular-season NFL game, but he says he's happy to be retiring now, and focusing on his Wish of a Lifetime foundation, which works with low-income senior citizens:

"I'd love to go to the Olympics. I feel like right now, today, I could put on skis and compete with anyone in the world," Bloom told USA TODAY during an interview Tuesday at his foundation office in Denver. "But training eight hours a day didn't feel the same."

I've always thought the athletic skill set needed to be a downhill skier is a lot like the skill set needed to be a punt returner, but no one else has ever done both at a high level. Bloom was an athletic original.