12 Superstars With Super Vision After LASIK

12 superstar athletes who used a legal way to enhance their performance.

Nowadays, athletes will consume just about anything to improve their abilities to run faster, jump higher and hit harder. And there's a history of some strange performance enhancing drugs that have been used to do just that — all now banned in professional sports; Adderall, deer antler spray and even female fertility pills. These make steroids look so boring.

What isn't banned, or even frowned upon, that athletes are resorting to now, is LASIK eye surgery. Not just any athletes are turning to LASIK for an advantage against their competitors. The best athletes are — superstars if you will.

1. Lebron James

AP Photo/Al Behrman / Via cleveland.com

What does the best basketball player in the world do whenever he’s just about reached his potential? He gets LASIK. James’ stats were already superior to most players in the NBA already, but he needed to take it one further step.

Prior to his 2007-08 season, James underwent LASIK, and to no one’s surprise, he performed incredibly. What made his next few seasons standout, though, was the fact that he was making 50 percent of the shots he took — going from “BASIK” LeBron to “LASIK” LeBron.

2. Lindsey Vonn

AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Frank Gunn / Via sltrib.com

Presumably, speeding down a mountain anywhere between 80-90 miles per hour would cause any contact lens to dry out. Vonn, a world champion alpine skier, shouldn’t have to worry about that anymore after getting LASIK in 2010.

Vonn’s gone on to win her fourth World Cup overall championship, in 2012, and this year she won her first three races of the season. She holds the world record for most World Cup podium appearances by a woman.

3. Wade Boggs

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It’s safe to say, that to hit a 95-mph baseball, you’ll need good vision. Labeled as one of the premier contact hitters of his generation, Boggs earned five batting titles during his 18 years in the MLB. He also was a part of the 1996 World Champion New York Yankees.

In the offseason of ’99, before his final year of playing professional baseball, Boggs had LASIK surgery after hearing about it just a week prior. That season, Boggs recorded his 3,000th hit in the majors — it was a homerun.

4. Dwyane Wade

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Seeing his teammate LeBron James increase his true shooting percentage to 50 percent after LASIK surgery, surely must have influenced Wade’s decision to do the same. It probably also helped him get his second and third championship ring.

It was only a couple of years ago that Wade’s health began to come into question. After the 2016 season, though, many are saying he looks better than he has in years. I’m sure he “sees” the same.

5. Greg Maddux

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An eight-time All-Star, World Series Champion and four-time Cy Young Award winner, Greg Maddux made a name for himself on the mound — “The Professor.” The name was acquired for being a smart pitcher, but if you saw him off the field, you’d think it came from his wide-frame glasses that just about covered his entire face.

Maddux had LASIK while he was still pitching, and played for another 9 years after it. He’s the only player to ever record 300 wins, 3,000 strikeouts and fewer than 1,000 walks. You have to have exceptional accuracy to throw fewer than 1,000 walks in a 22-year career — eyesight too. It’s safe to say his eyesight was at the top of its game.

6. Tiki Barber

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A 10-year veteran in the NFL, Barber remains the all-time leading rusher for the New York Giants. He’s joined the few others that are in the 10,000 rushing yards club, and has won an NFC Championship.

A running back has to have extremely good eyesight. Not only to see their routes, but also to avoid those 300-pound men hurling toward him. He underwent LASIK in 2000, and his stats for his final six years were better than any year before.

7. Tiger Woods

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Tiger could be the most recognizable person on the list. Probably because many sports analysts believe him to be the greatest golfer to ever play. As of late, any Tiger fan could tell you he’s not the same player. It’s not due to his ability to see, though.

In 1999, Woods had LASIK. He’s said that the hole appears larger and more defined, afterwards. He must be telling the truth, because he won the Disney Classic in his first start since the procedure later that month. Not to mention the 12 Major Championships he won after that.

8. Amy Van Dyken

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Dyken, a competitive swimmer, went down in the history books as becoming the first woman to receive four gold medals in one Olympic Games. In 2000, she returned to the pool to capture two more gold medals. She’s won an ESPY Female Athlete of the Year award, was inducted into the US Olympic Hall of Fame and, most importantly, she has her own Wheaties box.

9. Jeff Bagwell

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Another big league hitter with an impressive list of accomplishments, Bagwell was a career .300 hitter and a former MVP. He underwent his LASIK procedure while still in his heyday. In 1999, after earning his fourth All-Star appearance, he decided to go under the laser. It’s hard to tell if it made him a better hitter, but it’s a FACT that it didn’t hurt him.

The next year he recorded a career-high 47 home runs. A year after that, he joined Babe Ruth, Jimmie Foxx and Lou Gehrig as the only players to hit 30 home runs, 100 RBIs and 100 runs scored in six consecutive seasons.

10. Dorothy Hamill

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Besides her haircut, Hamill is known for her fluid skating and her infectious charm. Following her Olympic Gold Medal in 1976, she took first at the World Championships in ’76. The Associated Press released a sports study of the most popular athletes in America in ‘93, displaying her as statistically tied with fellow Olympian Mary Lou Retton for first place. After seeing so many other famous athletes undergo the procedure, Hamill jumped on the LASIK bandwagon, as well.

Since the medals, she’s performed in numerous skating productions, including the Ice Capades and Broadway on Ice.

11. Rory McIlroy

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Last December, McIlroy underwent LASIK in hopes that it would do the same for him as Tiger Woods who had LASIK during the prime of his career. In an interview with the Daily Telegraph, McIlroy said that it has improved his ability to read the greens, hinting that his putting needs some work.

It can’t be too bad, seeing as he’s won one tournament this year already.

12. Patrick Ewing

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A member of the NBA Hall of Fame, Ewing was one of the biggest figures in basketball — besides the fact that he was seven feet tall. He was a standout in college, becoming the College National Player of the Year, and winning an NCAA title. He went to the NBA and garnered Rookie of the Year honors.

He never did manage to get his hands on the elusive NBA Championship. In the classic game seven of the 1995 Eastern Conference Semifinals, Ewing missed a close layup to tie the game — watching the ball bounce off the rim. If only he had gotten his LASIK procedure sooner, maybe he would have watched it bounce in.