Good sports: famous musicians show off their sporting skills

Good sports: famous musicians show off their sporting skills

With the Olympics approaching, what better time to admire famous musicians past and present demonstrating their own sporting prowess?

George Gershwin boxes clever, New York, 1933 © Getty Images

Published: July 3, 2024 at 1:18 pm

Just because musicians spend hours in the practice room, perfecting those difficult technical passages, doesn't mean that they don't occasionally like to let their hair down with a little physical activity, be it football, boxing or table tennis.

In honour of the Olympics later this month, here are a selection of famous past and present musicians playing sport...

Famous musicians playing sport....

Sing as you swing: soprano Lucrezia Bori tees off for a game of golf with Members of the Met Opera in Atlanta, 1922 © Getty Images

Tenor Plácido Domingo shows some silky skills on the football pitch in Budapest, 2008 © ATTILA KISBENEDEK/AFP via Getty Images

Snow time like the present: composer Richard Strauss feels the need for speed on his toboggan, c.1910 © Roger Viollet via Getty Images

Composer Benjamin Britten smashes another opponent on the tennis court, Aldeburgh, 1949 © Kurt Hutton/Picture Post/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler elegantly traverses the ski slopes © ullstein bild/ullstein bild via Getty Images

Pianists John Ogdon and Denis Matthews cue up for a game of pool, 1965 © Erich Auerbach/Getty Images

Some deft ping pong action from pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim, 1966 © Erich Auerbach/Getty Images

Bass-baritone Paul Robeson, star player of the Rutgers University American Football team, 1916

Bass-baritone Bryn Terfel goes for a drive before the Ryder Cup at Celtic Manor, 2010 © Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images

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