Christian women athletes shine at the Paris Olympics

“God made me fast. And when I run, I feel His pleasure.” So said Eric Liddell, the Scottish sprinter and Christian missionary who competed at the 1924 Paris Olympics. Liddell famously pulled out of the 100 metres, a race he was favoured to win, because the heats were held on Sunday – a story immortalized in the Oscar-winning 1981 film, Chariots of Fire.

A lot has changed in the century between the two Paris Olympics of 1924 and 2024. One of the most positive changes has been the ever-growing presence of female athletes at the Games. While there are still countries where women are discouraged or forbidden from participating, the 2024 Games had a greater proportion of female athletes than ever before.

Even more encouraging was the large number of Christian women athletes who testified to their faith through word and action. Of course, this was just as true of the many male athletes who follow Jesus. However, since female representation was one of the themes of these Games, it seems fitting to focus on the stories of a few of these sisters in Christ, from among many others.

Kayla Alexander (Basketball, Canada)

The Canadian women’s basketball team had high hopes for the Paris Games. Second only to the Americans in the number of professional WNBA players on their squad, the Canadians were considered serious medal contenders. Those dreams ended in defeat, but for Kayla Alexander, the team’s co-captain, adversity is nothing new. Serious injuries have dogged her career, but her faith in God has carried her through it all. “Unfortunately, things happen that don’t make sense,” she says, “we don’t understand the reasoning or why behind it, but I believe that [God] works it all out for his good and his glory.”

Julien Alfred (Sprinting, Saint Lucia)

Saint Lucia is a tiny Caribbean island nation that had never won a medal in any previous Olympic Games. That all changed at Paris 2024 when Julien Alfred sprinted to a gold medal in the women’s 100 metres, in the pouring rain, ahead of the American favourite, Sha’Carri Richardson. Alfred then gave her country a second medal, the silver in the 200 metres. After her gold-medal win, she said in an interview, “I told God that whenever I win, I will give him the glory always, so I thank God for bringing me through, for giving me the strength to come so far.” On her Instagram profile, she highlights Romans 8:18: “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.”

Rayssa Leal (Skateboarding, Brazil)

Brazil is one of the world’s great sporting nations, with no shortage of Olympic medal winners in many sports. At age 13, Rayssa Leal became the youngest of them all when she won silver in street skateboarding at the Tokyo Games in 2021. She followed up that early success three years later with a bronze medal in Paris, still only 16 years old. Before one of her runs, she used sign language to communicate John 14:6: “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” Later, she told Brazilian media that she does the same at every competition. “For me it is important; I am Christian, I believe a lot in God,” she explained. “There I asked for strength and sent a message to everyone, that God really is the way, the truth, and the life.” On her Instagram page, Rayssa posted a photo of herself holding her medal and captioned it with a quote from Joshua 1:9: “Didn’t I command you? Be strong and courageous! Don’t get carried away or discouraged.”

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone (Hurdles and Sprinting, USA)

American hurdler and sprinter Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone is one of the most decorated and recognizable Olympians in the world. At 25, she’s been to three Olympics, won three gold medals and broken her own world record six times in the 400 metre hurdles, including in Paris, where she set an amazing new mark of 50.37 seconds. McLaughlin-Levrone is also one of the most outspoken and articulate Christian athletes. She has written a book, Far Beyond Gold: Running from Fear to Faith, and regularly shares her faith in interviews and on social media. After her gold-medal run in Paris, she spoke at a press conference: “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, and I have a platform and I want to use it to glorify him.” As she summed up on a sports podcast, “In a sport where you’re literally chasing gold all the time, I would take my love for Christ and that relationship over a gold medal any day.”

Nyeme Nunes (Volleyball, Brazil)

Casual Olympic viewers tuning in to women’s volleyball often wonder why one of the players on each team wears a different coloured uniform and is a fair bit shorter than most of her teammates. That player is called the libero, a defensive specialist whose agility and strategic talent allows her to read the plays and set up her teammates for their attacks. Brazil’s libero is Nyeme Nunes, or simply Nyeme, going by her first name like most of her teammates, and she’s one of the best liberos in the world. Her brilliance and joy are evident on court, whether she’s diving for an impossible ball or leaping into the arms of her taller teammates. She’s also a passionate Jesus follower, always adding an appropriate Scripture quote to her social media posts. After her team missed the gold medal but won bronze in Paris, Nyeme wrote, “Head down? Only if it’s to pray,” which she followed with a quote from Psalm 30:11-12, expressing eternal thanks to God for turning her mourning into dancing.

Yemisi Magdalena Ogunleye (Shot Put, Germany)

The daughter of a Nigerian father and a German mother, Yemisi Ogunleye has experienced her share of adversity, in sport and in life. She has suffered through injuries in her physically strenuous sport and has been the target of racist behaviour. In Germany’s highly secular culture, her deep Christian faith has also drawn attention, not always of the positive kind. Through it all, she has remained unfazed, secure in her trust in the Lord. “I am loved just as I am,” she says. “With a medal or without a medal I am valuable.” Her Instagram bio boldly states, in all caps, “NOT I, BUT JESUS IN ME.” Before her shot put competition, Ogunleye and her teammate, Malaika Mihambo, sat in a stairwell singing “Gratitude,” accompanied by their coach on a guitar. At her press conference after winning the gold medal, she was asked if it was true that she sang in a Gospel choir, to which she responded with an impromptu performance of “God Kept Me.”

Nicola Olyslagers (High Jump, Australia)

Along with her prodigious talent as a world-class athlete, the most obvious thing about Australian high jumper Nicola Olyslagers is her broad, effervescent smile, on display throughout her competitions. She won silver at the Tokyo games and repeated the feat at Paris 2024, that smile rarely leaving her face. On her website, Olyslagers explains the reason for it: “The satisfaction that I jump and live by was once performance-driven, to bring meaning to life. Yet that all changed when I was introduced to Jesus.” After her second silver, she posted on Instagram: “Praise be to God my Rock! He is my strength and song!!” Her joy and love for Jesus is contagious; during the Paris Games, she and a group of Christian athletes from various countries, including British hurdler Cindy Sember, gathered around a piano and sang “Waymaker” in the Olympic Village. Olyslagers has also co-founded a ministry called Everlasting Crowns, whose purpose is “to see fellow athletes transformed by Jesus’s perfect love, planted in churches, and discipled to be a blessing to every place they are sent.”

Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix (Diving, Great Britain)

All of 19 years old, British diver Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix is the veteran of two Olympic Games. After a poor experience in Tokyo, she considered giving up her sport but regained her commitment through her faith in God. At the Paris Games, she and her partner, Lois Toulson, captured bronze in the 10-metre platform synchronized diving competition. “Bringing God into the competition takes that pressure and stress away,” she said in an interview. “I give God all the glory.” With the discipline befitting a world-class athlete, Spendolini-Sirieix starts each day with prayer and ends it with Bible study. “This is more than just sport,” she explained. “I am proud to represent my country, my family and glorify the name of Jesus.”

Tatjana Smith (Swimming, South Africa)

South African swimmer Tatjana Smith (known formerly by her maiden name, Tatjana Schoenmaker) is the most decorated female Olympian athlete in her country’s history. Competing at the Tokyo and Paris Games, she has won four medals, two gold and two silver, in the 100 and 200 metre breaststroke. Outspoken about her Christian faith throughout her career, she announced her retirement from competition after her final medal in Paris. “Swimming has been an amazing platform I’ve been blessed with to glorify God’s name and to try show/share His love and goodness to the world,” Smith had posted on Instagram. “What I realised and know is that swimming is just the beginning. We can still glorify Him in all other places in life, in every season in life through the way we live our lives. We don’t need a platform we only need a relationship with Him.”

Larissa Pimenta (Judo, Brazil) and Odette Giuffrida (Judo, Italy)

It was one of the most moving moments at the Paris Olympics: two women, crouched down on their heels, one weeping into her hands, the other holding her by the shoulders and whispering words of encouragement. The woman crying was Larissa Pimenta of Brazil, who had just won the bronze medal in judo by defeating the woman comforting her, Odette Guiffrida of Italy. The two women are top competitors in their sport, but also close friends and sisters in Christ. After her victory, Pimenta shed light on that moment she shared with Giuffrida: “She is a special person to me. And what she said was incredibly meaningful. She speaks Portuguese and we talk quite a lot. Odette came to know God through me – she came to Brazil and found God. And just a few days ago, we were talking about how we were going to give all honour and glory to him. So at that moment, she told me to get up because all honour and glory should be given to him – it was truly significant for me.”

Concluding thoughts

At the Paris Olympics a hundred years ago, Eric Liddell didn’t run in his favoured 100 metres because of his Christian convictions, but then ran the 400 metres instead, and won gold. A century later in the same city, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone ran her favoured 400 metre hurdles, and won gold.

Much has changed in the time between those two Olympics. Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, along with most of the women on this list, likely wouldn’t have been able to compete at the 1924 Games due to their gender, race, laws of their countries, or all the above. At the 2024 Games, they not only had the opportunity to compete in their chosen sport, but like Liddell, they could praise God for the talents and public platform he has given them to live out the Gospel and glorify Jesus.

McLaughlin-Levrone summed up her faith that drives her, in words that strangely but beautifully evoke those of Liddell from a century earlier: “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. So it’s just freedom in knowing that regardless of what happens, he’s going to get the praise through me. That’s why I do what I do.”

Sources and further reading

Bruce Barron, “The top Christian highlights of the Paris Olympics,” Christianity Today, August 12, 2024.

CT Editors, “28 Christian athletes to cheer on at the Paris 2024 Olympics,” Christianity Today, July 24, 2024.

Emma Fowle, “6 athletes (and 1 nation) giving God the glory at the Olympics,” Premier Christianity, August 9, 2024.

Kevin Mercer, “South African swimmer Tatjana Smith wins Olympic gold as she aims to ‘glorify God’s name’,” Sports Spectrum, July 30, 2024.

Kevin Mercer, “Christ-follower Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone claims another Olympic gold, world record,” Sports Spectrum, August 8, 2024.

Subby Szterszky is the managing editor of Focus on Faith and Culture, an e-newsletter produced by Focus on the Family Canada.