The Rio 2016 Olympic Games will officially kick off tonight. Every four years, the games offer a rare glimpse of international unity. The Olympics Games are also inherently human. They provide a platform to share in the journeys, struggles, and victories of individual athletes. Attendees, viewers, and sports fans alike will connect with athletes on a personal, indeed spiritual, level.
Coming from a wide variety of backgrounds, the athletes represent diverse faith traditions, including Christianity. Martin Saunders, contributing editor at Christianity Today, profiled ten of the most prominent Christians athletes headed to the Rio Games in an article on August 3.
Perhaps the two most recognizable Christian athletes representing the United States are gymnast Gabby Douglas and golfer Bubba Watson. At the London Olympics four years ago, Douglas was on the gold medal-winning U.S. women’s Olympic team. She also became the first African-American woman to win the all-around title. Douglas subsequently described her rise from a humble background to international star and her Christian faith in her memoirs, Grace, Gold and Glory: My Leap of Faith.
“Her book explores how she came close to giving up the sport before finding strength in her faith in God,” Saunders said.
Watson likewise had a dramatic story about his faith. His website describes how his father’s battle with cancer and his relationship with megachurch pastor Judah Smith led him to Christ. Watson said he decided to become a Christian who was “constantly learning and journeying deeper” into his faith.
Of course, Christians won’t be the only athletes competing on behalf of the United States at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. Ibtihaj Muhammad represents one notable example. She qualified in women’s sabre fencing, and will be the first woman from the United States to compete in the Olympics wearing a hijab. Besides representing the United States during an “unusually divisive time” as “an African-American woman in a religious headscarf,” Wall Street Journal reporter Ben Cohen said that “how Muhammad got to the Rio Games is unusual,” having never competing internationally before.
The sheer scale and breadth of the religious facilities available at the Rio Olympics shows just how important a role faith plays in the lives of the more than 10,000 athletes competing. “With such a turnout, the Olympic committee is preparing for a high demand on spiritual resources,” Huffington Post Associate Religion Editor Antonia Blumberg wrote in an article on July 27. “To satisfy that need, Olympic and Paralympic Village feature a multi-faith center with chaplains and prayer spaces representing Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and Judaism.”
There can be no doubt that faith will feature prominently in the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, by virtue of faith being so important to the lives of athletes involved. Many observers will be able to connect with athletes based on their shared faith. Perhaps for others, their eyes will be opened their need for faith in something larger than themselves, even faith in the one true God.
All this may be possible in the context of peaceful competition at the Games. It’s this type of peace that Pope Francis asked Christians to pray for in a brief minute-and-a-half video posted posted to YouTube on August 2 (and embedded below), translation courtesy of Pope World Prayer Network:
Sports make it possible to build a culture of encounter among everyone for a world of peace. I dream of sports as the practice of human dignity, turned into a vehicle of fraternity. Do we exercise together this prayer intention? That sports may be an opportunity for friendly encounters between people and contribute to peace in the world.
As human beings encounter other cultures and faiths as they compete and watch the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, may we fervently pray they also encounter the truth.
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