Olympic gold medalist Hunter Armstrong has been highly outspoken about his faith since winning a gold medal in the 2024 Paris Olympics. During a recent interview, Armstrong explained how his relationship with Jesus Christ is at the forefront of his life.
Armstrong shared a similar experience that many Christians have, where they drift away from their upbringing in the church. For many, this is a time when they truly discover the Holy Spirit, instead of attending church on a weekly basis as somewhat of a cultural Christian, without having experienced the fullness of Christ.
“Faith is my life,” Armstrong said to Fox News. “Obviously, growing up in the church, going to church camps, all the normal stuff, but as I got older, I sort of drifted away from it — always a believer, but I wasn’t buying into it. I didn’t have a relationship with God, and that’s something I felt like I was taking advantage of Him for because I’d only remember about faith when I needed it, and that’d be in competition, when I’m stressed out or I’m worrying. That’s when I’d pray.”
Despite the massive accolade of being an Olympic gold medalist, a highly coveted title that athletes around the world dedicate their lives toward, Armstong maintains that, first and foremost, he is a Christian above all other titles that could be assigned to his name. “I don’t see myself in my day-to-day life as an Olympian,” the swimmer said. “But every day, I’m a Christian. When I’m competing, I’m a Christian Olympian.”
Armstrong further recognized God as the provider of all blessings, emphasizing that he couldn’t live without Him, much less swim at the Olympic level. “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.” The world-class athlete further discussed his commitment to making God the first priority in his life. “That’s the first thing I want people to see and know about me,” he noted
Furthermore, the swimmer from Ohio maintained that regardless of whether he walked away from the Olympics with medals to show for his performance, he knows he has eternal treasures stored up in Heaven as Christ called us to embrace over the material things of this life. “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.”
The gold medalist explained that every time he competes, he gives glory to God, the source of all blessings. “Every time I swim, I point up to the sky because it’s God first. Like none of this matters without Him, and you know, it got to the point where…it became a habit, just part of the pre-race ritual, and I didn’t like that,” he said.
Featured image credit: INVMANMOM, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hunter_with_Medal.jpg