Today is the sixth day of the XXV Winter Olympics. If you’ve watched any of it, you’ve seen athletes compete in curling, women’s ice hockey, snowboarding, figure skating, skiing events, and many more. This has prompted a few individuals to dig into the Olympics photo-vault to discover some of the best pictures and stories surrounding the Olympics over the last few decades. I cannot share the copyrighted photos, but I can tell you about them.
One photo is taken from 1936. Hitler presided over the Olympics from his self-exalted pedestal, desiring to watch his “super race” of Aryans defeat any competitor, especially if they were black. Israel had already boycotted the Olympics because they were being held in Nazis Germany. Hitler would be upstaged by an Ohio State Buckeye by the name of Jesse Owens, a black man who gold medaled in all four of his events. Best of all is the picture of Owens and German competitor Luz Long walking away from the long jump together, arms around each other in a great display of sportsmanship. Long would take the silver but most of all, he took home a lifelong friendship with Owens despite the politics of his nation.
Quite honestly, their friendship was even a well-deserved slap in the face to America. “Though Owens enjoyed athletic success, he had to live off campus with other African-American athletes. When he traveled with the team, Owens was restricted to ordering carry-out or eating at “blacks-only” restaurants. Similarly, he had to stay at “blacks-only” hotels. Owens did not receive a scholarship for his efforts, so he continued to work part-time jobs to pay for school.”1 That was the reprehensible, repulsive condition of America in the early 20th century. And even though Hitler congratulated Owens after his victories in Germany, our own American president, Franklin D. Roosevelt, snubbed him, never even inviting him to the White House after the wins.
Another timeless picture is of 18-year old American gymnast Kerri Strug being carried to the winner’s podium by her coach, Béla Károlyi. “After the U.S. women’s gymnastics team frittered away a once-commanding lead at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, things took a turn for the worse when Kerri Strug flubbed a vault landing and, she later recalled, heard something snap in her left ankle. Thinking she still needed to complete a solid turn to carry the U.S. to gold, Strug managed to charge down the runway, flip over the vault, and stick the landing on one good foot.
“It turned out the Americans would have won the event even without Strug’s heroics, and Coach Károlyi later came under heat for urging his charge to continue on what turned out to be a badly sprained ankle. Nevertheless, the picture of Károlyi carrying the tiny, injured gymnast to the podium has stood as a defining image of the 1996 Games, and an athlete’s willingness to lay her body on the line for Olympic glory.”2
The last two devotions have looked at American courage. Today, we set our sights on what it looks like to have a competitor’s spirit. It’s the spirit that doesn’t crumble under the fierce opposition of insults. It’s the spirit that’s not broken even though you are treated as less than human because of the color of your skin. It’s the spirit that fights through personal and physical pain. It’s the spirit of someone who sees that there is something far better and desirable at the end of the race or the competition.
These Olympic athletes possess the spirit that every Christian should possess!
Paul had this spirit within him. In 2 Corinthians 11:24-28, he tells us what he endured. “Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. (25) Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; (26) In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; (27) In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. (28) Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches.”
As he faced the church of Corinth, he experienced a different form of persecution. His efforts to help them grow and learn in their failures was thrown back in his face as personal insults were hurled at him. 2 Corinthians 10:10 describes what they were saying about him. “For his letters, say they, are weighty and powerful; but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible.” Paul didn’t even try to defend this! Instead, he embraced their comments. “But though I be rude in speech, yet not in knowledge; but we have been throughly made manifest among you in all things.” (2 Corinthians 11:6)
Why endure such pain and torment? Why would Owens fight the racial injustices? Why would Strug endure the pain? The answer is simple: they saw something bigger than themselves. Owen saw nations that needed healed. Strug saw a team depending on her. They both saw a prize at the end. May we get our sights focused on the finish line.
Never forget the powerful words of Philippians 3:14. “I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”
1https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_Owens
2https://historyfacts.com/arts-culture/article/7-unforgettable-photos-from-the-olympics/
Images are taken from https://pixabay.com/, https://www.pexels.com/, or https://unsplash.com/images or created in Windows Copilot. According to the websites, they are Royalty Free and free to be used for our purposes.
