The United States Women’s National Soccer team recently defeated Brazil in a 1-0 victory in the Paris Olympic Games. Mallory Pugh Swanson carried the team to win with a tie-breaking goal in the fifty-seventh minute of the math. Subsequently, her husband, Chicago Cubs baseball star Dansby Swanson, took to social media praising God after the win.
“God is so good. Always and forever,” her husband posted on social media with a picture of Mallory. “You are such an inspiration to so many, but more to me than anyone can ever fathom. Your faith in God’s plan, gratitude in life, the grace and joy in which you live and play, the perseverance to fight through whatever obstacles thrown your way.”
He continued, “You are truly a gift from above, and you shine with that every day. I’m speechless. And now you’re a gold medal, Olympic champion, and 100 caps in the same day. And that can never be taken from you. I love you forever.”
While Swanson made the game-winning goal look effortless in the Olympic final, the journey to the goal medal was anything but easy. The soccer star suffered a devastating injury last year that set her back substantially, where she was forced to undergo major surgeries.
“Swanson tore her patellar tendon in 2023 – an injury that typically demands at least six months of recovery time. The full rupture required surgery, and the site became infected just a week post-operation. Swanson underwent a second surgery – an emergency procedure to remove the infection – and was on IV antibiotics for nearly six weeks,” according to Team USA.
In the face of the major setback Dansby noted that God brought her through it. “In God’s beauty and brilliance, he can take something that’s so devastating and create something even more amazing than one could ever imagine,” her husband said. “It’s just a testament to her and her gratitude, her joy, her love, grace — any positive attribute you can come up with — just how she’s handled every bit of this is amazing.”
The Christian Tribune recently reported on comments from Christian swimmer Hunter Armstrong’s comments after recently winning gold in the 4×100-meter men’s relay. “That’s the first thing I want people to see and know about me. As we grow, we have to make sure we have our priorities in line. I keep God as a priority. I can’t really live without him. I can live without swimming or being an Olympian or any of that stuff.”
Furthermore, track and filed gold medalist Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone also gave glory to God, stating, “I credit all that I do to God. He’s given me a gift. He’s given me a drive to just want to continue to improve upon myself,” she said during press conference after the win. “I have a platform and I want to use it to glorify Him, and so whenever I step on the track, it’s always the prayer of ‘God let me be the vessel in which you’re glorified’ whatever the result is, how I conduct myself, how I carry myself, not just how I perform.”
Featured image credit: Dansby Swanson / Instagram