Just wondering if there are any athletes that have competed in both the Summer and Winter Olympics? I wouldn’t be surprised if someone had back in the day of the gentleman athlete. If so, has anyone medaled in both?
A quick search suggests that Paul Narracott has represented Australia at the Winter Games (bobsleigh in 1992) and Summer Games (athletics in 1984).
Source: Australia at the Winter Olympics
Well, there’s this page. I can’t testify as to either its completeness or its accuracy, FWIW. And I want to go home.
According to Ask Yahoo, 18 athletes have done this.
This link names four athletes with both winter & summer medals.
Clara Hughes from Canada won the bronze in road race cycling in 1996, and a bronze in 5,000 m speed skating in 2002,
Christa Luding-Rothenburger won a gold, silver, and bronze in speed skating, and a silver in cycling. Interestingly, she won medals in the 1998 winter games and the 1998 summer games, the only athlete to win medals in winter and summer olympics in the same year.
Jacob Tullin Thams won a gold in ski jumping in 1924 and a silver in yachting in 1936.
Eddie Eagan won a gold in boxing in 1920, and a gold in four-man bobsled in 1932.
Cite.
Since that article was written, Clara Hughes won a gold in speed skating this year.
Oh, and as far as winning medals in both - 4 athletes have.
Huh? There were no summer games in 1998 - Atlanta, 1996; Sydney, 2000. The last year the winter and summer games were held in the same year was 1992 (Barcelona and Alberville).
As to why skaters: Speed skaters train in the summer by biking, since it exercises much the same set of muscles, so it’s not unusual that a skater could cross over to biking.
Sorry, typo. 1988. The summer games were in Seoul, and the winter games were in Calgary.
From the official Olympics site:
And in one of those bizarre twists of trivia I love but don’t get a chance to bring up often enough… until 1924, of course, there were no separate Winter Games. In London in 1908, however, figure skating (and that means ice-, not roller-skating or some other summery adaptation) was part of the Olympic program. In Antwerp in 1920, both figure skating and ice hockey were included.
Figure skater Gillis Grafström, of Sweden, won the men’s singles event in both Antwerp (1920) and Chamonix (1924). The Canadian ice hockey team, men’s only at the time of course, also took the gold medal at both Games. So… since no separate Winter Olympics existed until '24, did they win gold at both the Summer and the Winter Olympics, in the same event? I’m sure trivially inclined Dopers could work up a nice bar bet out of this useless bit of information 
I think one of the most interesting thing about the lists is just how many of the dual Olympians competed in the same pair of sports, either cycling and speed skating, or athletics and bobsled. Now, I can see why athletes would do so well in the bobsled, what with the sprint in the beginning (probably noticed that from Cool Runnings), but for the life of me, I don’t see much in the way of benefits between speed skating and cycling, other than strong legs and endurance in each.
Why do you need an other than? In both events strong legs and endurance are basically it, apart from technique.
Northern Piper answered your question, above: Speed skating and cycling use pretty much the same set of leg muscles, so speed skaters often train in the off-season by cycling.
Ed