Five members of Florida Football who could hold their own in other Olympic sports
![Florida Gators wide receiver Eugene Wilson III (3) stiff arms Florida Gators defensive back Sharif Denson (0) during the first half at the Orange and Blue spring football game at Steve Spurrier Field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville, FL on Saturday, April 13, 2024. [Matt Pendleton/Gainesville Sun]](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_crop,w_2935,h_1650,x_0,y_0/c_fill,w_1080,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/images%2FImagnImages%2Fmmsport%2F213%2F01j3k65nhe2r42ebh5gn.jpg "Florida Gators wide receiver Eugene Wilson III (3) stiff arms Florida Gators defensive back Sharif Denson (0) during the first half at the Orange and Blue spring football game at Steve Spurrier Field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville, FL on Saturday, April 13, 2024. [Matt Pendleton/Gainesville Sun]")
The opening ceremonies for the 2024 Olympics are today, and the Florida Gators will have 40 athletes represented in Paris across a variety of sports. Part of the allure of the games are sports that we usually don't pay attention to getting a prominent stage.
But while the Olympic athletes are the best in the world, the athleticism of multiple Florida Gators would be transferable to some of these other sports if they dedicated time to that chosen discipline.
The following are five players on Florida's roster who we think could hold their own and not get the pity clap at the Olympics if they were to try a different sport.
Tre Wilson - Rugby
Rugby feels like a sport that should be more popular in the United States than it is. It has all the physicality people like about football without all the annoying time-outs and stoppages that bog the game down.
The version of rugby played in the Olympics is a seven-on-seven formats, which creates a fast and wide-open style for the game. Often teams will put their fastest and most agile player out on the wing to work the ball to them in a one-on-one scenario.
This sounds like a dream for Tre Wilson to constantly be put into a one-on-one scenario where the opposing defender is usually having to start from a relatively flat-footed position.
Wilson would be 100% a problem to deal with if he were to trot out onto a rubgy pitch.