The Most Well Known Vegan Athletes
By
Richard Janvrin
Contributor Updated: 27 November 2024
Richard Janvrin Contributor
Richard has been writing about sports since he was a teenager. Still, his first professional role came in 2015, covering all things NFL and fantasy football-related. From there, in December 2018, he started in the sports betting industry, covering sportsbook reviews before arriving to where he is today.
Well Known Vegan Athletes
While some of us spend time at the top online sportsbooks wagering on teams and players, what we don’t often know is the type of diet the players on the teams have.
Sure, we know the general sentiment is that professional athletes eat and exercise well and often to stay in game-ready shape, but what are the diets specifically?
Here, I’ll examine some noteworthy vegan athletes, from Lewis Hamilton to Venus Williams to Kyrie Irving and more.
Let’s check them out.
Lewis Hamilton
Lewis Hamilton, a seven-time Formula 1 racing champion, is a known vegan who started the diet around 2017.
His transition to veganism began after watching the documentary “What The Health,” which examined the meat and dairy industries.
“I feel incredibly clean and healthy,” he said on CNN in 2017. “There are things I see my friends eating, and I used to eat it, but now I feel sick because I have to read about it and have read some of the science.”
In 2019, he invested in Neat Burger, a vegan fast-food chain in the United Kingdom.
“I’m very passionate about being kinder to our world and also really respect Neat Burger’s commitment to more ethical practices and supporting small businesses, so this is something I’m also really proud to support. As someone who follows a plant-based diet, I believe we need a healthier high street option that tastes amazing but also offers something exciting to those who want to be meat-free every now and again,” he said.
In May 2024, he appeared on the show “Hot Ones,” which famously has guests eating hot and spicy wings while being interviewed. He ate vegan wings on the show.
In August 2024, Hamilton, one of the most famous vegan athletes, drew criticism from some fans after he posted himself on Instagram riding a camel. The “vegan fans” took to social media to discuss the vegan principles they thought Hamilton wasn’t abiding by, by riding the camel.
Venus Williams
Venus Williams is one of the most accomplished tennis players of all time. She’s won Wimbledon five times, the US Open twice, the Australian Open twice, and has more than 800 career wins.
She’s mostly vegan, too, and this came after a health diagnosis.
“I started eating raw and vegan for health reasons. I needed to fuel my body in the best way possible,” she said in an interview with Women’s Health.
In 2011, she was diagnosed with Sjögren’s syndrome, a chronic autoimmune disease in which the immune system attacks the body’s moisture-producing glands. She’s one of two vegan athletes on this list who switched to a plant-based diet because of health.
Additionally, you could consider Williams one of many vegetarian athletes as she also eats a lot of vegetables.
“You’ll often find me snacking on kale chips in meetings,” she said in that same Women’s Health interview. “Green juice and smoothies—and protein shakes, if I’m coming straight from practice—are also my go-to’s. I need foods that are tasty and convenient but still pack a punch and keep me going, whether I’m on the court or in a meeting.”
Williams is one of a few athletes who are vegan to launch a company centered around the diet. She launched a new vegan protein brand, Happy Viking.
Kyrie Irving
Kyrie Irving plays for the Dallas Mavericks as of the 2024-25 season.
In 2017, he started a vegan diet and has since invested in Beyond Meat and been involved in organizations that help people eat plant-based foods.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Irving donated 200,000 Beyond Burgers to a New York City food bank, too.
Additionally, Irving is Muslim and practices fasting during Ramadan.
This happens during the NBA season, and the Mavericks made sure to accommodate Irving, including flying in a personal chef to prepare him vegan meals to eat after the sun went down to assist with his Ramadan observing. The fast is broken each night with a meal.
It’s rumored he also started his vegan diet after watching the “What The Health” documentary. “Been on more of a plant-based diet, getting away from the animals and all that,” Irving told NBA Countdown. “I had to get away from that. So my energy is up; my body feels amazing.”
Colin Kaepernick
As far as vegan professional athletes go, none may be more outspoken about their beliefs than Colin Kaepernick.
Kaepernick last appeared in the NFL in 2016 with the San Francisco 49ers. Over his career, he set NFL records for most rushing yards by a quarterback in a game (181) and most rushing yards by a quarterback in a postseason game (264). He had 72 passing touchdowns and 30 interceptions while completing 59.8% of his passes.
Kaepernick went vegan in 2015, and his girlfriend at the time, Nessa Diab, also followed a vegan diet.
“We did it together. Because we feel like, it’s true that… the more animal products you eat… your body becomes more acidic, which allows more diseases to basically breed within you,” said Diab on MTV2’s Facebook page in 2018.
Kaepernick once partnered with Impossible Foods to give away one million Impossible Burgers to those in need during the pandemic.
Novak Djokovic
While Novak Djokovic is often referred to as having been “vegan,” he has distanced himself from the term because he thinks it’s often misinterpreted.
In 2022, Djokovic cited that he cut out animal products from his diet due to allergies as a kid. Since taking up the diet, the allergies have faded.
He mentioned that he had trouble digesting red meats.
“Eating meat was hard on my digestion and that took a lot of essential energy that I need for my focus, for recovery, for the next training session, and for the next match,” Djokovic told Graham Bensinger.
Djokovic also became involved with the documentary The Game Changers, which focused on planet-based eating diets for athletes.
However, in 2023, Olympics.com cited that Djokovic eats a diet that consists of “Vegetables, beans, white meat, fish, fruit, nuts, seeds, chickpeas, lentils and healthy oils.”
So, while Djokovic never “identified” as being vegan, his diet followed those “parameters” for quite some time up until recently, but it seems that changed. Of the vegan athletes on this list, it’s safe to not really consider him to be one any longer.
His coach, Marian Vajda, seems to have had an influence, per an interview with Dennik Sport.
“Novak’s muscle fibers are ideal for tennis. But his muscles needed strengthening. His diet is dominantly vegetarian, but he needed some animal proteins as well. It’s not possible without those. That is why Novak had adjusted his diet to include eating more fish as he doesn’t eat other kind of meat,” the coach said.
Djokovic, 37, has won 10 Australian Opens, three French Opens, and four US Opens, and has won Wimbledon seven times.
