athlete vs player

athlete

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

  • 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. 

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

player

noun
  • One who plays any game or sport. 

  • An electronic device that plays audio and/or video media. 

  • A mechanism that actuates a player piano or other automatic musical instrument. 

  • One who is playful; one without serious aims; an idler; a trifler. 

  • A gambler. 

  • A software application that plays audio and/or video media, such as a media player. 

  • A participant; one involved in something. 

  • An actor in a dramatic play. 

  • One who plays on a musical instrument. 

  • A gamer; a player of video games or similar. 

  • A person who plays the field rather than having a long-term sexual relationship. 

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