athlete vs cross-country runner

athlete

noun
  • An exceptionally physically fit person. 

  • A participant in a group of sporting activities which includes track and field, road running, cross country running and racewalking. 

  • A person who actively participates in physical sports, especially with great skill; a sportsperson. 

  • She's the first athlete in her sport to obtain a corporate sponsor. 

cross-country runner

How often have the words athlete and cross-country runner occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )