U.S. Olympic gold medalist Noah Lyles recently gave glory to God when he won the 100m dash in Paris. The sprint came down to the wire, as Lyles was neck and neck with Jamaican runner Kishane Thompson. However, Lyles managed to pull ahead at the last second in a photo finish, where he won by five thousandths of a second to bring home the gold medal for the United States.
Notably, as Lyles was getting set up in the starting blocks, he could be seen mouthing praise to God for allowing him to compete at the highest level of track and field. “Thank you, God. Thank you, God,” he could be seen mouthing before the race began. Furthermore, in a post-race interview, the 27-year-old sprinter was asked about his final thoughts before the race, to which he said, “Thank you, God.”
Furthermore, Lyles spoke to Premier Christian News after the race where he touched on seeking the guidance of God in his career. He explained that he asked God to give him a sign as to what he should do. “I had to find my own journey with God and a lot of that came through track because there were a lot of times where I thought I don’t know if I can do this,” he said. “God if you really want me to do this, give me a sign. He gave me a sign and I said I’ll never doubt you again.”
Numerous other Christian athletes have also expressed their faith in Jesus Christ at the Olympic Games. U.S. Olympic swimmer Hunter Armstrong, who has won a gold and silver medal in Paris, also spoke about about making God “a priority.” “I keep God as a priority,” he said. “I can’t really live without Him. I can live without swimming or being an Olympian or any of that stuff.”
He noted the importance of prioritizing a relationship with God, as one’s faith can easily fade if it is not assigned appropriate importance. “When I’m in competition, I’ll pray, and that will last for a little bit,” he added. “Church camp, same kind of thing. But as soon as I didn’t need [God] anymore, it would fade.”
“That was my first real relationship. I had a proposal planned out. I was already pre-ordering the ring,” Armstrong further added. “I was certain that I was going to marry this girl, and I quickly watched it all crumble. He also illustrated that God can often work through troubling circumstances to deepen faith. “The biggest catalyst for change in life tends to be pain,” Armstrong told BP. “Sometimes God will put you in a position where you have no other choice than to turn to him,” he said.
Armstrong maintained, “I’ve overcome so much this year that I’m just happy to be here. Obviously, I want to have a great performance for myself, my country, and my teammates. But if I walk away and I don’t have a single medal or a single best time, I can still walk away knowing that I represented myself well and God.”
Featured image credit: Erik van Leeuwen, attribution: Erik van Leeuwen (bron: Wikipedia)., GFDL <http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html>, via Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Noah_Lyles_Oregon_2022.jpg