Research suggests plant-based diets come with many benefits—it’s better for the animals, the planet, and our bodies, too. This is why several high-profile professional athletes have ditched animal products for good, proving that you can be vegan and at the top of your athletic game at the same time.
Vegan athletes that prove you don’t need meat to excel in sports
From the best tennis players in the world to ultramarathon runners, here, we’ve gathered popular athletes who prove meat is far from necessary for protein.
Happy Viking
1 Venus Williams
Tennis legend Venus Williams—who has won seven Grand Slam Singles titles—initially switched to a vegan diet after she was diagnosed with the autoimmune condition Sjogren’s syndrome, and since then, she hasn’t looked back. She has even launched her plant-based protein brand, called Happy Viking.
“I’ve found that plant protein is what works best for my body and overall health. I truly believe the better fuel you drink and eat, the better you perform and feel,” Williams told VegNews back in 2021. “Since switching to a plant-based diet, I’ve seen the benefits for my body, mind, and performance firsthand.”
Lewis Hamilton | Instagram
2 Lewis Hamilton
Race car driver Lewis Hamilton has made no secret of his love for veganism. In 2020, after he secured his seventh Formula One title, he took advantage of the spotlight by taking to social media to raise awareness of the plight of factory-farmed animals.
“The horrifying things that are happening to animals in order for you to keep eating meat is inhuman. If we can let go of our desires and think of the impact we’re having, maybe with some compassion, together we can help stop this by starving the industry that’s supplying [meat],” Hamilton, who is also an ambassador for Veganuary, wrote in a social media caption. “It is those of us who eat animal products that are complicit with this happening. Please don’t turn a blind eye, please don’t ignore it. Go plant-based.”
Tia Blanco | Instagram
3 Tia Blanco
Tia Blanco has been a professional surfer since she was 12 years old, and meat-free even longer. The athlete told Men’s Journal that she has been a vegetarian since birth, but she decided to ditch dairy in her teens.
“When I was 11 or 12, I started to get the questions: ‘Why are you a vegetarian? Meat is good for you!” she recalled. “And all I could say was, ‘Shoot, I have no idea.’ Then, when I was 15, I watched the documentary GlassWalls and read The China Study, and then it became quite clear to me why I wanted to be a vegetarian and why I wanted to adopt a vegan lifestyle.”
Patrik Baboumian | Instagram
4 Patrik Baboumian
Patrik Baboumian is a retired world-record-holding strongman and bodybuilder, but he’s also a dedicated vegan and animal-rights activist, too. He’s been plant-based since 2011, but he was a vegetarian for several years before that.
“This is a message to all those out there who think that you need animal products to be fit and strong. Almost two years after becoming vegan, I am stronger than ever before and I am still improving day by day,” he said in 2013, after setting a world record in yoke walk.
“Don’t listen to those self-proclaimed nutrition gurus and the supplement industry trying to tell you that you need meat, eggs, and dairy to get enough protein,” he continued. “There are plenty of plant-based protein sources, and your body is going to thank you for stopping feeding it with dead food. Go vegan and feel the power!”
Dotsie Bausch | Instagram
5 Dotsie Bausch
Olympic cyclist and world record-holder Dotsie Bausch, otherwise known as the “plant-powered athlete,” is also the founder of the vegan nonprofit Switch4Good, which is on a mission to remove dairy from the food system.
“From both an ethical and practical perspective, no other lifestyle made sense, and I wanted people to realize it, too,” Bausch told Animal Outlook in 2017. “After years as an athlete, I felt a deeper calling, and I’ve never turned back since.”
In 2025, Bausch and Switch4Good celebrated a huge win when the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act passed with provisions from the Freedom in School Cafeterias and Lunches (FISCAL) Act. This means that millions of children across the US can now gain easier access to dairy-free milk options.
Rich Roll | Instagram
6 Rich Roll
Vegan ultra-endurance athlete Rich Roll is a podcast host, best-selling author, speaker, and nutrition advocate. He’s been vegan since 2006 and is a huge advocate for the benefits that cutting out meat and dairy can bring you.
“I have found that I am able to repair my body and recover well from workouts and am able to bounce back fresh day in and day out,” he said back in 2009. “Believe me, if I felt like I really needed to eat meat or dairy over the last 3 years, I would have. I just never felt like I really needed to.”
Meagan Duhamel | Instagram
7 Meagan Duhamel
Meagan Duhamel, an Olympic gold medalist figure skater, has followed a vegan lifestyle since 2008 after reading the book Skinny Bitch. For her, she says the benefits were undeniable, but gradual.
“Slowly, after a couple of months, is when I started to notice a difference in terms of my sleep, the quality of my skin,” she told Team Canada back in 2015. “Like I didn’t need to do anything but just wipe my face at night. My skin started glowing more, and my energy levels and my sleep. I wake up feeling more rested.”
Chris Smalling | Instagram
8 Chris Smalling
Soccer player Chris Smalling has been a vocal advocate for a plant-based diet since he made the switch back in 2018. The athlete—who has invested in the British plant-based meat brand This—said he was inspired by his wife, Sam Smalling, who is also vegan.
“This is me for life now. Physically, even before I went vegan [when I was] cutting down on red meat, my tendonitis was vastly improved. Then I went vegan, and I don’t feel it at all anymore,” he said in 2019. “You find out how brutal [animal agriculture] is to the animals, your own health, and the damage it causes to the environment. All of those reasons together, you just can’t ignore those anymore. Vegan is the way forward.”
Wikimedia Commons
9 Chris Paul
NBA star Chris Paul has been vegan since 2019, and he credits the diet with helping him recover swiftly off the pitch.
“When I first went plant-based, it was for performance purposes, but once I saw how my body changed and how I felt, it was for life,” Paul said in an interview with GQ. “Years ago, I probably wouldn’t have even gone outside to run around with my kids and all the other activities because my body would be aching. Now, with the constant lifting and making sure that my body is always ready, it’s been a good lifestyle change for me.”
The athlete also has his own vegan brand, Good Eat’n, which specializes in plant-based snacks like tortilla chips, cheesy popcorn, and puffs.
Scott Suchman
10 JB Blair
Another NBA star, JB Blair, who coaches the Washington Wizards, hasn’t eaten meat since his college years. But at the age of 40, after watching a YouTube video on animal agriculture, he decided to take the leap into veganism, with great results.
“Mentally, I have clear thinking and focus,” he told VegNews. “And, I truly do believe that the discipline it takes to follow a plant-based diet bleeds over to other aspects of your life, as well. Conscious eating leads to conscious living, and that is truly what happened.”
Luis Escobar | Instagram
11 Scott Jurek
Scott Jurek, who has set multiple course records in his career as an ultramarathoner, has been vegan since the 1990s. The transition wasn’t easy, but he wanted to do so for the health benefits.
“I grew up hating vegetables, eating meat and potatoes,” he told GQ. “When I was in college, I started reading more about different diets, and the vegetarian and vegan diets really came up quite a bit. As I worked in hospitals through physical therapy school, it became clear to me that I needed to change my diet to avoid the health problems I was seeing. It was definitely a long-term decision rather than one made for short-term performance gains.”
Peloton
12 Robin Arzón
Ultramarathoner, personal trainer, and Peloton instructor Robin Arzón says she was inspired by Roll and Jurek to take up a plant-based lifestyle while she was training for her first few marathons in the early 2010s.
“By 2012, I was pretty much exclusively plant-based,” she told VegNews. “That’s also around the time I started doing 50-mile races and was really researching anti-inflammatory diets and how I could recover faster and feel better. That was really my entry point into being plant-based. I thought, ‘Oh wow, if it’s working for these incredible endurance athletes, let me try it.’ And I haven’t looked back.”
“I have more energy,” she continued. “I recover from workouts, marathons, and really intense endurance events very quickly—in addition to sleeping better and having more energy.”
Wikimedia Commons
13 Alex Morgan
Two-time World Cup champion Alex Morgan is also a proud vegan. The soccer star adopted a plant-based diet after working with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals on a dog adoption campaign, which she says made her reconsider her dietary choices.
“I’m passionate about giving animals a voice,” she said. “I even adopted a vegan diet because it didn’t feel fair to have a dog I adore and yet eat meat all the time.”
Morgan has also spoken about the health benefits of the diet, noting that her energy levels and sleep have improved since cutting out animal products.
Morgan Mitchell | Instagram
14Morgan Mitchell
Australian Olympic sprinter Morgan Mitchell first went vegan in 2014, and since then, she has noticed significant health benefits. However, her biggest motivations are the ethical and environmental impact of her choices.
“People often ask me, ‘What if the vegan diet fails and you start running slower?’, ‘Will you ever eat meat again?’ or ‘Don’t you miss meat?’” she told Great Vegan Athletes. “I have to reiterate the fact that the life of an animal and the well-being of the environment mean more to me than any amount of money or the career path I wish to take. Without them, we wouldn’t have life. It sounds cliché and cheesy, but it’s true—that’s just the way I see it.”
Wikimedia Commons
15 Héctor Bellerín
Spanish soccer star Héctor Bellerín is best known for his skills on the pitch, but success as a professional athlete doesn’t come without challenges. Bellerín has long suffered from ankle inflammation, and he has said that adopting a plant-based diet helped heal the condition. From there, he began paying closer attention to the ethical and environmental benefits of the vegan lifestyle.
“The sustainability of the environment and animal cruelty now motivate me just as much as health,” he said in a video for Veganuary. “The way I feel physically and mentally, knowing I’m doing the right things, makes me really happy to be a vegan.”
Fiona Oakes | Instagram
16Fiona Oakes
Fiona Oakes is one of the most accomplished runners on the planet and holds multiple marathon records. She’s also a retained firefighter, and on top of this, she runs an animal sanctuary. She’s incredibly passionate about the vegan lifestyle and has been vegan since the 1970s.
“It’s not just good for animals and the planet, but it’s great for our bodies too, especially as we become older,” she wrote for The Vegan Society. “Fitness is so important to me, and my vegan diet allows me to get the right dietary balance to keep at the top of my game.”
Wikimedia Commons
17 Deatrich Wise Jr.
Since going vegan, footballer Deatrich Wise Jr. says he has noticed significant improvements in both his performance and overall health. He consumes up to 5,000 calories a day and says he easily gets all the nutrients he needs from a plant-based diet.
“I’m reaping the benefits of going 100-percent dietary vegan, including improved athletic ability, higher energy levels, increased blood flow, quicker recovery times, better sleep, and fewer injuries,” he told VegNews.
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Charlotte is a VegNews editor and writer based in sunny Southsea on England's southern coast.
