WInter-Olympic sports activities require power, grace, pace, precision and unbelievable braveness. For most of the athletes we’re about to see in PyeongChang, South Korea, these qualities are fueled by their religion in God, which has seen them via their darkest hours and hardest struggles. Listed here are only a few athletes who shared God's function of their Olympic journeys.
Picture: Courtesy of the US Olympic Committee
Maame Biney, pace skating (USA) @BineyMaame
Simply shy of her 18th birthday, Maame Biney grew to become the primary African-American lady to qualify for the U.S. Olympic pace skating group and was honored by one in all her heroes, Apolo Ohno. It's been an extended journey for the spirited teenager from her native Ghana, which she left on the age of 5 to dwell along with her father, Kweku, in the US.
Each Biney and her father thank God for her phenomenal success. Kweku Biney believes it was God who first identified an indication promoting skating classes to him, inspiring him to ask Maame if she'd like to present it a attempt — although he typically regretted it when his little lady woke him up early on a Saturday. to go to the ice rink. . As Maame herself posted on Instagram after her victory on the Olympic Trials, “If God hadn't given my dad the power to get up and take me to observe, I wouldn't be right here right now.” In her emotional submit, she additionally thanked her church household for his or her “prayers for a protected journey and profitable competitions”.
Picture: Courtesy of the US Olympic Committee
Alexa Scimeca Knierim and Chris Knierim, determine skating (USA) @Scimeca_Knierim
A pair on and off the ice — they married in 2016 — the Knierims received the US' solely pairs spot at this 12 months's Olympics. However their victory was not at all times apparent. Not lengthy after their wedding ceremony, Alexa underwent three surgical procedures for a life-threatening belly situation. The images she posted on-line of her restoration course of, together with the scars from the surgical procedures, drove dwelling simply how critical and terrifying the ordeal was.
Nonetheless, the pair have been again on the ice not lengthy after Alex's newest surgical procedure. At first, she might solely skate for a couple of minutes at a time earlier than needing a nap, and a few pairs strikes have been detrimental to her reduce. However each made it to the 2017 World Championships and at the moment are heading to their first Olympics. “I could have misplaced numerous religion in myself, however I grew in religion in God,” says Alexa. “I’ve some insecurities now that I didn't have earlier than, however I'm in a position to work via them and transfer ahead as a result of I've shifted my focus and a focus to my religion as a substitute of myself.”
Picture: Courtesy of the US Olympic Committee
Katie Uhlaender, skeleton (USA) @KatieU11
As she prepares for her fourth Winter Olympics, Katie Uhlaender remains to be coping with the hangover from her third. In Sochi in 2014, Uhlaender narrowly missed out on a bronze medal, ending simply 4 hundredths of a second behind Russia's Elena Nikitina. Within the following years, Uhalaender discovered herself on an emotional rollercoaster. When Russia's doping program got here to gentle, the Worldwide Olympic Committee (IOC) banned Nikitina and stripped her of her medal – solely to have it reinstated when the Courtroom of Arbitration for Sport overturned the ruling.
Together with different Winter Olympians, Uhlaenderova needed to deal not solely with the stress of whether or not the medal from Sochi might finally come to her, but additionally with the chance that the Olympians who broke the principles could be in Pyeongchang. Uhlaender depends on her religion in God to get her via. “I’m a human being. It's numerous emotion to see one thing so unfair occurring,” he says. “However to be particular person, Christian, I’ve to deal with what I can management and lead by instance.”
Picture: Courtesy of the Pyeongchang Committee
Seun Adigun, Bobsleigh (Nigeria) @Seun_MsAmazing
Former Summer season Olympian Seun Adigun represented Nigeria in athletics through the 2012 Summer season Olympics however admits it “froze”. Hungry for athletic “redemption”, she then switched to bobsled and constructed her personal coaching sled from scratch. (She is known as “The Maeflower” after her sister Mae-Mae, who died in 2009.) She and her teammates will make up the primary African Olympic bobsled group.
On the identical time she was coaching for her new sport, Adigun was additionally incomes two levels: a doctorate in chiropractic and a grasp's diploma in train and well being sciences. When requested how she managed all of it, she says, “Actually, I’ve just one reply: God.” The help of household and buddies has helped, she provides, however prayer has been a big software in getting via her large workload. And the “fearlessness” and “selflessness” that comes with religion are the final word keys to its success.
Picture: Courtesy of the US Olympic Committee
David Sensible, freestyle snowboarding (USA) @mrdavidwise
4 years in the past in Sochi, David Sensible was the primary man to win gold in downhill snowboarding, then a model new Olympic occasion. He hasn't been at his greatest since then, coping with numerous accidents together with concussions. However he managed to struggle his means again to the Olympic group.
With him in South Korea will probably be his spouse, his youngsters and sisters, his sources of help in good occasions and dangerous. 4 years in the past, NBC Information caught some slacker for saying that Sensible — specializing in religion and household as a substitute of partying with fellow athletes — was residing an “different life-style.” He nonetheless lives this life-style and he wouldn't have it another means. “I do know that no matter occurs to me is just not past the management of God, who faithfully cares for my household and me,” she says. “The truth that God is accountable for my life and the lifetime of my household takes the strain off me. It makes it simpler for me to go on the market and benefit from the trip.” Sensible has additionally had the chance to help his household in return—for instance, pledging 10 p.c of his winnings and endorsement earnings to a charity he and his sisters based that gives prosthetic limbs to youngsters (Sensible's sister, Christy, Air Pressure pilot, misplaced her leg in a boating accident in 2015).
Picture: Courtesy of the Pyeongchang Committee
Gim Sohui (aka Kim So-hee), Alpine Snowboarding (South Korea)
Gim competed for South Korea in Sochi in 2014 however was unable to finish the slalom attributable to harm. Now she is again to compete in her dwelling nation.
In an interview earlier than the Sochi Gim, she mentioned that she prays earlier than each competitors. Like her grandmother, the minister and snowboarding instructor Rev. Jang Jin-seon, who helped increase her, Gim hopes to “unfold the gospel via sports activities,” maybe as a future IOC member.
Picture: Courtesy of the US Olympic Committee
Nicole Hensley, ice hockey (USA) @NicHens29
Nicole Hensley could also be identified virtually as a lot for her love of Scripture as her goaltending abilities. A member of the 2018 Ladies's Olympic Hockey Staff tweets Bible verses and writes them on her face masks. Psalm 144:1 was just lately seen on the masks: “Blessed be the Lord, my rock, who trains my arms for battle, my fingers for battle.”
Hensley—one of many featured athletes in YouVersion's “Winter Olympics and the Bible” studying plan—credit God's Phrase not just for inspiring her athleticism, but additionally for shaping her character. “I might say that I was a little bit nervous on the ice. … That's not how I need to painting myself or how God has labored in my life,” she says. “My religion calmed me on the ice and helped me notice that the consequence is just not essentially a very powerful factor. It's extra necessary to be on the ice and benefit from the likelihood to play when God has given me such ardour and talent on this sport.”
Picture: Courtesy of the US Olympic Committee
Elana Meyers Taylor and Nic Taylor, bobsleigh (USA) @eamslider24 and @NicTaylorUSA
As Elana Meyers Taylor heads to PyeongChang as a member of the ladies's bobsled group, her husband Nic will play a number of roles there: each an alternate for the US males's bobsled group and Elana's coach and largest supporter. Pastor Ryan Schneider, who married them and leads the Bible examine they attend, recounts FCA journal that Nico's selfless help of Elana, placing her coaching and her wants earlier than his personal, is “the proper image of a husband who loves his spouse as Christ cherished the church”.
Picture: Courtesy of the US Olympic Committee
Kelly Clark, snowboarding (USA) @thekellyclark
As Kelly Clark heads to her fifth Winter Olympics, she'll be carrying a board with a sticker that reads, “Jesus, I can't disguise my love. After her victory on the 2000 Video games, Clark turned to Christ with a way of “which means” that even her beloved sport couldn’t give her. He now relishes the chance to deliver the gospel to his fellow athletes. “I'm in a subject the place [faith is] very international and it's very countercultural,” he says. “I'm beginning to love these individuals who would by no means set foot in a church.
Picture: Courtesy of the Pyeongchang Committee
Simidele Adeagbo, skeleton (Nigeria) @SimiSleighs
On the age of 36, Simidele Adeagbo will develop into the primary African lady to compete in skeleton on the Winter Olympics. Like Seun Adigun, she transitioned from athletics to winter sports activities, though Adeagbo by no means grew to become a summer time Olympian. After 10 years of making an attempt and failing to qualify for the Summer season Olympics in athletics, Adeagbo was impressed by watching Nigeria's bobsled group to attempt the winter sport as a substitute and was intrigued by the prospect to “make historical past”.
Though she solely began skeleton final September, Adeagbo credit her observe and subject background for serving to her grasp the game so shortly that she is ready to go to the Olympics only a few months later. He additionally provides credit score to God when he says, “Religion is most necessary as a result of religion made it potential.”
Gina Dalfonzo is an affiliate options editor on the firm Christianity At present.