THE Olympic chaplaincy team is a welcoming space in which to “meet people as they are”, one of its 120 sports chaplains, the Revd Ben Harding, has said.
The multifaith team of chaplains, based in the Olympic Village, are offering pastoral support to athletes, coaches, staff, and supporters of the Paris Olympic Games, which end on Sunday. The Paralympic Games start on 28 August. The chaplaincy was first established for the Seoul games in 1988. This year’s group of chaplains is the largest to gather since then.
Mr Harding, who is an Anglican and the Chaplain of Trinity Church, Lyon, described the multifaith centre as “a place of listening, a place of worship, a place of fun, a place of welcome and a place of resource”, and said that his ministry was “an opportunity to speak to people who will see them as people — just to meet them as they are as people”.
It was also an opportunity for athletes to “meet, learn from, and hopefully encourage Christians who face persecution at home”, as well as to ask questions, including about how competitive sports and faith can work together.
“Under the pressure of international expectation for competitors and athletes, there is sometimes just that moment where people stop and they think about what is important and re-evaluate their lives a little bit.”
Many Olympians this year have been more vocal about how their faith has supported their journey to the Games. This includes the British swimmer Adam Peaty, who, after losing his Olympic title in the 100m breaststroke by 0.02 seconds, told the BBC: “I’m a very religious man. I asked God just to show my heart, and this is my heart. I couldn’t have done more.”
Simon Poole, from Christians in Sport, supports elite athletes in navigating the highs and lows of top-level sport. He is also one of the leaders of an independent Evangelical church, Town Church Bicester.
“Competing at the Olympics is like experiencing ten funerals for every one wedding. In elite sport, every one person’s victory is at the expense of many others’ agony of defeat.”
The charity does not collect data on the number of Christians competing at the Games, and the identities of those with whom they work is confidential — but this small group of athletes has grown over the past few Olympic cycles.
“During the Olympics, we have the privilege of supporting a number of elite athletes as they compete at the highest level,” Mr Poole said. “The reality is that winning on this stage can be just as destabilising as losing. Because even the high of an Olympic Gold fades away all too quickly, along with the razor sharp focus of giving everything to achieve a goal, and it can be replaced with an emptiness and lack of purpose which many athletes have spoken about.”
Ben HardingThe Revd Ben Harding in the Olympic village
He continued: “For the Christian athlete however, the eternal perspective and lasting victory given through Jesus completely transforms sport. It is when a Christian athlete grasps their fundamental identity that they can respond to both success and disappointment with remarkable maturity, and say: ‘Whether or not win gold does not define me. Instead, I can give thanks to God because of what he’s done for me, and I can give thanks that he’s called me to compete to the best of my ability knowing that the outcome does not define me.’
“This isn’t straightforward or easy, but through Christ’s sacrifice, and God’s work in athletes by His spirit, it is possible to say for the rightly disappointed or delighted Christian athlete.”
The US Episcopalian Molly Reckford, and her rowing partner, Michelle Sechser, finished sixth in the lightweight women’s double sculls final last Friday. Two-time defending world champions Emily Craig and Imogen Grant of Great Britain took the gold.
Ms Reckford, 31, and her siblings, were baptised at Christ Church, in Short Hills, in the diocese of Newark, which she still calls her home church. “The community at Christ Church in Short Hills is very close with my family, and they are really our extended family in a lot of ways,” she told the Episcopal News Service last month. “Christ Church has always been a big part of my life.”
Her father, Sam Reckford, is the diocesan chief financial officer. Her grandfather, the late Bill Spencer, was also twice an Olympian, competing in the men’s biathlon at the 1964 and 1968 Winter Games.
Ms Reckford, who does not usually talk about faith in the professional space, said that the Olympics did offer spiritual opportunities for the athletes. “One of my favourite places in the Tokyo village was this beautiful monument that was a tree, and you could write the name of a loved one who had passed away and tie it to the tree.” She wrote the name of her grandfather, who died in 2020.
“I think one of the things that Episcopalians tend to be present about — and definitely something that I feel very strongly personally — is a safe place, the importance of allowing everybody to have their own religion and practice in their own ways. . . One of the reasons why I loved that space in the Tokyo village was that it felt very holy without feeling exclusive in any way.”
On Sunday morning, representatives of the Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, and Buddhist faiths gathered outside Notre-Dame de Paris for a special interfaith service to celebrate fraternity at the Games.
The service included prayers, readings, and periods of silence. Chaplains from the Olympic Village multifaith centre spoke about how sport could “bring out the best of humanity” and serve communities.
The Auxiliary Bishop of Paris, Bishop Philippe Marsset; the President of the Protestant Federation of France, the Revd Christian Krieger; and the national Orthodox hospital chaplain, the Revd Anton Gelyasov, represented the Christian faith. They were joined by the Chief Rabbi of France, Haïm Korsia; the president of the Association of the Mosques of Paris, Najat Benali; the co-president of the Buddhist Union of France, Lama Jigmé Thrinlé Gyatso; and Shailesh Bhavsar, representing the Hindu community.
The Bishop of Digne, the Rt Revd Emmanuel Gobilliard, who is the Holy See’s special envoy to the Paris Olympics, told Vatican News: “I think this is the most beautiful way to express a common prayer; it allows you to say something important and beautiful.”
Faithful challenged to join Rosary Olympics. An app has been released by the Christian-based Hosana network to encourage users to “compete” in what it calls the Rosary Olympics, in parallel with the Olympic Games in Paris. The app challenges users to pray the rosary with “increasing intensity” throughout the duration of the Games, which finish on Sunday. The aim is “to channel the same dedication athletes show into our prayer life, honouring the Virgin Mary with each heartfelt prayer”.
Read Rober Stanier’s second Olympics column here.
