U.S. sportspeople who had to/continued to wear glasses while competing

In America, around 166.5 million people wear prescription glasses. Despite this, it is rare to see people in the sports world wear glasses. For some, wearing glasses while competing is too risky. They may fear breaking them, especially in a physically demanding sport. Or they simply do not want to have to adjust their glasses while they are in the process of trying to win their match. It’s an understandable dilemma even for people who wear glasses most of the time outside of their sports. However, there have been a few players across a variety of sports who have gone against the grain and wore glasses while competing. Most of them are for different reasons, but all have shown it is possible to wear glasses and compete at a high level.

Below, we will look at some sportspeople who have worn glasses while competing.

Notable athletes who wore glasses while competing

Here is a list of players who wore glasses while they competed in their respective sports.

  1. Horace Grant (NBA) – Most known for his time with the Chicago Bulls from 1987 to 1994, Horace Grant was a four-time NBA Champion. He was known for his rebounding skills, defensive play, and goggles. Suffering from Myopia, which made it difficult to see objects far away, Horace wore prescription goggles during games. Those goggles quickly became the primary way fans could recognize him during the game and remain one of the main things that stand out to many about his playing career.
  1. Eric Dickerson (NFL) – Often considered to be one of the best running backs in NFL history. He was also well known for the prescription glasses that he wore throughout his career due to his Myopia. But these glasses never held back the Hall of Famer who, while wearing these goggles in the 1984 season, set the record for the most rushing yards by a running back in one season at 2,105 yards – something that the Las Vegas sports betting odds still don’t see being beaten despite an extra regular season game in the modern era. He was known to be an explosive runner, but many people remember his signature goggles.
  1. Bob Griese (NFL) – The NFL during Bob Griese’s time was a rough sport, and wearing glasses during a game seemed impossible. But once he found out he was blind in his right eye, he had no choice. Initially resistant to wearing glasses during a game, Bob chose to wear contacts instead. But it was during an exhibition game where he came in as a replacement kicker and missed an extra point attempt that he knew he had to switch to glasses. After making the switch in time for the second half, he made two extra-point kicks and continued to wear glasses during games from that point. Ultimately, it all worked out for this Hall of Famer, who won two Super Bowls, appeared in six Pro Bowls, and had his number retired by the Miami Dolphins.
  1. Danny Jansen (MLB) – After struggling through several years in the minor leagues, one of his teammates thought he should try wearing contacts when he saw him having a hard time reading a road sign. Even though he was Initially resistant to the idea, considering his blurry vision was due to a lack of sleep, before the 2017 season, he decided to see an optometrist who informed him that he had astigmatism. Once receiving this diagnosis, he chose to get glasses and immediately noticed an improvement in his game. He rose through the ranks of the minor leagues, eventually making his MLB debut in the 2018 season with the Toronto Blue Jays.
  1. Morgan Hurd (Gymnastics) – To be a gymnast requires a lot of jumping around, so many athletes, even though they wear glasses regularly, choose not to wear glasses when competing opting instead to wear contacts. Morgan Hurd became prominent not only because of her exceptional gymnastics skills but also because she showcased these skills while wearing glasses. Like many other athletes, Morgan wore contacts initially but grew tired of them, causing her eyeballs to get dry and having to take them out constantly. Morgan thought wearing glasses would be more efficient and used neoprene spray to ensure the glasses would always remain in place. She has won several medals throughout he career, including the silver medal on the uneven bars at the 2019 U.S. national championships, and was the all-around champion in the American Cup in years 2018 and 2020

Conclusion

Many people in America need to wear glasses but a lot of sports players refuse to thinking it will disrupt their play. However, several Hall of Fame players have proven you can still be a high-caliber player even while wearing glasses.

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