Christian witness at the Olympics

The International Olympic Committee charter bars athletes from displaying religious symbols of any kind, but that didn’t stop Rayssa Leal from coming up with a bold and ingenious workaround. Just before earning a bronze medal, the Brazilian skateboard prodigy smiled at the camera and sent a message in sign language: “Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.”

Leal went viral at age 7 when she executed a perfect heelflip in a blue princess dress, catching the attention of legendary skateboarder Tony Hawk. She grew up attending a Baptist church, and at age 16, her faith remains strong. Her Instagram is full of Scripture verses. After her win, she told the media that she signs Scripture at every competition. For this medal, her second at the Paris Games, she says, “Once again, thank God.”

It’s been 100 years since Eric Liddell won Olympic gold without compromising his deep Christian convictions—particularly his Sabbatarian convictions about competing on the Lord’s Day. Today, young Christian Olympians like Leal are willing to be similarly bold in an even more hostile and secularized West. And many, perhaps even most of the open believers competing at the Olympics, are non-Western. Many are African and Asian—the fruit of faithful gospel preaching by missionaries like Liddell, who gave up athletic glory to live and ultimately die spreading the gospel in China. Though, ironically, the country that erected a monument in his honor would never allow a (known) Chinese Christian to reach an Olympic stage.

Christians also face intense persecution in African nations like Nigeria, making the witness of athletes like Rasheedat Ajibade especially powerful. In one Instagram post, the young soccer star shows off a T-shirt with the words “Jesus Revealed, Jesus Glorified, Haleluya.” Another shirt reads simply “Thank You Jesus,” with a reference to the prophet Isaiah. She writes, “Beyond my desires, beyond everything in and around my life, I JUST WANT TO SEE JESUS REVEALED AND GLORIFIED” (caps original).

Meanwhile, a different kind of courage is exemplified by Japanese soccer player (or “footballer”) Taishi Brandon Nozawa, who represents a culture with no sizable Christian community. Yet even though Christians make up a mere 1.5 percent of Japan’s population, Nozawa’s faith remains vibrant. On Instagram, he’s shared a quote by Charles Spurgeon exhorting Christians to be “walking Bibles.”

Even when we turn to spiritually sterile, post-Christian Europe, we find seeds of hope, sometimes planted from the Global South. The German shot-putter Yemisi Ogunleye was born to a German mother and a Nigerian father. She freely shares her faith with German media and gives “all the glory” to Jesus for her recovery from two knee injuries. “Knowing that God has prepared a way that I can just walk makes me thankful,” she said after winning a silver medal during the World Athletics Championship in April.

The future of Christianity in the United Kingdom can also look dire when the numbers are crunched. But struggling young men like swimmer Adam Peaty are still wandering through church doors and discovering the peace they’ve been looking for. Peaty credits sports chaplain and Anglican theologian Ashley Null with guiding him into the faith during a dark period of substance abuse and depression. He now relies on a church community and “every Sunday” attendance to keep him grounded.

Peaty isn’t the only Olympian who credits his faith with seeing him through serious mental health struggles. Swimming for Team USA, Caeleb Dressel says he wrestled with “mental demons” under the intense pressure of training, but he eventually recommitted himself to his family’s Christian faith and learned to “put all my trust in God.” Canadian racewalker Olivia Lundman has a similar story of struggling through severe anxiety and unanswered prayer before learning to trust God’s plan.

Perhaps this year’s most compelling testimony is the story of Brody Malone, one of the five gymnasts who brought home our male team’s first medal in years. Malone broke his leg in the spring of last year, so severely that he wondered if his career was over. It was the last in a succession of dark trials, including the deaths of his mother and stepmother. But he persevered and earned a spot on the team, saying “It’s all God.” As the team readied for Paris, he posted a group picture captioned with a favorite Psalm: “Not to us, Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory because of your faithful love, because of your truth.” Looking back, he reflected that while he hadn’t seen the purpose of his injury at the time, he’d trusted that somehow God would use it to display His glory. Now, here he was.

Malone would go on to make disqualifying blunders that knocked him out of contention for an individual medal, but he accepted the loss gracefully. In the end, his humble word from Scripture foreshadowed the team’s shared third-place triumph.

These young athletes are the hope of the future, a future where every corner of the globe is touched by the saving gospel of Christ. The world has certainly changed since Eric Liddell seized his moment of glory, in many ways not for the better. But surely, even so, his legacy of Christian witness lives on.