As the United States’s best athletes compete on the world stage in the 2024 Paris Olympics, several have been open about their faith despite culture wars that often demean it.
The Paris Olympics began on July 26 and will conclude after more than two weeks of competition with the closing ceremony on Aug. 11. Throughout this time, around 10,500 athletes from 204 National Olympic Committees will compete across 32 sports.
Olympic swimmer Hunter Armstrong, 23, captured a gold medal in the men’s 4x100m freestyle relay on Saturday. On Sunday, however, Armstrong failed to advance to the finals in his individual 100m backstroke event. He said his journey leading up to the Olympics renewed his faith in God.
“I feel like in past years I’ve been sort of on the edge of it,” Armstrong told the Baptist Press. “When I’m in competition, I’ll pray, and that will last for a little bit. Church camp, same kind of thing. But as soon as I didn’t need him anymore, it would fade.”
“The biggest catalyst for change in life tends to be pain,” he added, pointing to the death of his grandmother and the ending of a relationship with his then-girlfriend who he thought he would marry. “Sometimes God will put you in a position where you have no other choice than to turn to Him. That’s been the biggest change that I’ve made this year.”
Armstrong’s Instagram account declares, “GOD FIRST!” Ahead of the Olympics, he said his primary goal was to represent God.
“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,” he said.
Armstrong also told the Sports Spectrum Podcast that he has found peace in prayer that calms his nerves ahead of competition.
“Every time I swim, I point up to the sky because it’s God first. None of this matters without Him,” he said. “My prayer before every race is, ‘Give me the strength to do my best, and may whatever I do bring glory to your name.’”
Wrestler Aaron Brooks, 24, will represent the U.S. in the men’s freestyle 189.6-pound weight class on Aug. 8 and 9.
Brooks, a first-time Olympian, shared a video just ahead of heading to Paris. In it, he recalled a time his brother found him in the tunnel during a competition. He captioned the video “1 Peter 5:3.”
“I hear someone call my name and I look up and it’s my little brother. And it’s not that I almost teared up, but he was a representation of all the young generation. And it’s like man, he’s watching. I’m leading by example. What example do I want to lead by?” Brooks said. “Be a vessel, go hard for the kingdom. You know, so when I see a bunch of children, or even older people, you know. It just reminds me that, man, he looks up to me, like many others do. So, for me to go out there and wrestle timid and wrestle scared, that’s selfish. Go be free. Go be bold. Go be courageous. Because that’s what I want him to be.”
Brooks Instagram bio also reads, “Jesus is King.”
The wrestler garnered attention for his comments about his faith following his 2023 NCAA championship while representing Penn State.
“Christ’s resurrection is everything — not just His life, but His death and resurrection,” Brooks said. “You can only get that through Him, the Holy Spirit only through Him, no false prophets, no Muhammad, no anyone else, only Jesus Christ Himself.”
Kelly Cheng, 28, is a two-time Olympian, having previously competed in beach volleyball at the Tokyo Games that took place in 2021.
The beach volleyball star finished ninth in Tokyo with teammate Sara Hughes, who also shares her Christian faith. Together they went on to win gold at the 2023 World Championships.
Cheng told the Sports Spectrum Podcast that she is “very passionate” about God and her faith.
“It’s very much my why and why I do what I do,” Cheng said. “I really want to glorify him with the gifts that he’s given me.”
She added that she and Hughes have had “some really awesome conversations about God.”
As an athlete who travels the world frequently, Cheng also said she finds strength in gathering with other believers when she is home and in prayer and reading the Bible with her husband.
As Team USA men’s volleyball captain, Micah Christenson is known for his playmaking skills and as a man of faith.
In June, following his last match played during the Manila leg of the 2024 Volleyball Nations League, he told Spin.ph that his faith helped him be a bolder athlete.
“I feel like pressure is created by yourself. And at some point as well, you can create pressure that maybe is not there,” Christenson said. “For me, I’m a Christian. I believe in God and so I know I get a lot of freedom from my faith in God.”
“When I’m out there, I feel free to make different decisions and take a little bit of risk because I know where my identity lies and that love is always gonna be there,” he added.
Christenson, 31, is from Hawaii and was given Makanamaikjalani, which means “Gift from Heaven,” as a middle name at birth. His parents gave him that name after his mother needed surgery while she was pregnant with him and his survival during the procedure was not guaranteed.
Vashti Cunningham, 26, is a three-time Olympian, representing the U.S. in track and field.
The high jumper first competed in the 2016 Rio Olympic Games where she became the youngest track and field athlete to represent the U.S. at the age of 18. Despite her arrival on the world stage at a young age, she said her family and faith keep her grounded.
“Track is a solo sport and can be very unforgiving,” Cunningham recently told Hypebae. “Everyone who is close to me is also very faith driven and that keeps me grounded. It’s definitely one of the keys to my success.”
Cunningham also shared that she does a Bible study with her father, former NFL quarterback Randall Cunningham, the morning before a competition.
As Cunningham prepared to leave for Paris, she posted on Instagram that she was “leaving all worries, doubt, anxiety, stress and pressure in Gods hands. When you see me you see His power. I can’t do any of it without His help and guidance. Thank you all for the love and support. May all glory and honor forever be the Lords.”
Caeleb Dressel, 27, entered the 2024 Paris Games as a seven-time gold medalist.
The three-time Olympian’s journey to success has been marked by a battle with depression and panic attacks. He said his faith has become his anchor.
“I really learned to see the light at the end of the tunnel and trust what God is doing, whether it be a rough point in your life or a top pinnacle in your life,” he told the Evangelical Focus.
Dressel has also credited his faith as “the reason I’m in the sport.”
He told the Baptist Standard that he hopes “to inspire people and show them where I find my happiness with what God’s given me.”
In the men’s 4x100m freestyle relay on Saturday, Dressel swam the final leg to help capture the gold medal alongside Armstrong.
Those watching the star swimmer will see an eagle tattoo on his left shoulder. He said it was inspired by his favorite Bible verse, Isaiah 40:31: “But those who trust in the Lord will renew their strength; they will soar on wings like eagles.”
Diver Alison Gibson, 25, is a two-time Olympian.
She competed at the Tokyo Games but retired after finishing eighth in the women’s 3-meter springboard synchronized diving event.
It was Gibson’s former synchronized diving partner and friend Krysta Palmer who convinced her to come out of retirement. After qualifying for the Paris Olympics in women’s individual 3-meter springboard diving, Gibson told NBC, “First and foremost, I want to say all glory to God.”
Gibson’s Instagram bio features the Bible verse Ephesians 6:10-18.
“My faith was something I could always come back to and recognize that no matter how hard it was, no matter what insecurities I was feeling, my identity was centered in Christ,” Gibson told Sports Spectrum, “and God made me uniquely for this purpose and for this path.”
A year ago, gymnast Brody Malone, 24, was unsure he would be able to compete at the Paris Games. He had undergone a third surgery on his right leg after a poor landing that resulted in a dislocated knee, fractured tibia, and several torn ligaments.
Earlier this month after qualifying for competition in Paris, Malone said he gave “all the glory to God.”
“It’s all God. So, I just want to thank him for this,” he told NBC. “I’m just so grateful for everything that God’s done for me.”
“He is the only reason that I’m here standing right now and I was able to compete and do well tonight. I give all the glory to Him. It was a long recovery process, but with His help and with the help of my family, my teammates, I’m standing here competing,” Malone also said.
Just ahead of leaving for Paris, he shared on Instagram how his faith helped him in his recovery.
“As soon as my injury happened, I was flooded with a lot of different emotions. Pain, regret, confusion. When I was laying on the stretcher I remember saying to God, ‘I don’t know why you did this, but I guess it’s part of Your plan.’ I immediately felt at peace about it and knew that He was going to somehow use my injury to display His glory. That peace kept me from being upset it happened, and allowed me to focus on what good would come from it,” Malone wrote. “I am incredibly grateful to be representing team USA at my second Olympics. Next stop Paris!”
As a two-time Olympian, Malone helped Team USA take home the bronze medal in the men’s gymnastics team event this week.
Three-time Olympic swimmer Simone Manuel, 27, has found strength in her faith to battle back to competing in the Paris Olympics after being diagnosed with overtraining syndrome a few years ago.
Manuel made history at the 2016 Rio Games when she became the first Black woman to win an individual gold medal in swimming, one of four medals she would take home that year. However, her 2021 Olympic journey in Tokyo ended with disappointment as she failed to advance to the 50m freestyle final.
With doubts mounting, she faced questions of retirement. Yet, Malone recently shared that “quitting was never an option.”
Honestly, it’s often times been a very frustrating topic for me,” she wrote on Instagram a few weeks before the Paris Games began. “It all started with a call to be obedient and faithful to God’s calling and purpose for my life. Believing in the fact that He is in control, and that He always has much bigger plans for our lives than we can imagine.”
Malone said it was after five months of bedrest to recover from overtraining syndrome that she began to battle the “doubts, fears, criticism, questions, and being counted out.”
“What a journey. I DID IT!” she said with hopefulness for her competition in Paris. “It’s not about coming out of this experience a faster swimmer or on the top of the podium. Oh yes…that would have been nice, and my goals will always be high and lofty, but I’ve come out of this a better Simone knowing that I’m still ~unfinished!~ That is priceless!”
Manuel found her way back to the podium to begin her Paris Olympic journey, capturing a silver medal in the women’s 4x100m freestyle relay event.
As one of the best wrestlers in the world, Kyle Snyder has found a freedom in his faith.
After becoming the youngest world champion in the history of U.S. wrestling, Snyder said God helped him find an identity more valuable than his success.
“God, he freed me from my identity of being a wrestler and from my value coming from winning wrestling matches, to my identity being his child,” Snyder told Christianity Today. “And my purpose is to know him and trust in him and, Lord willing, to bring other people into faith.”
In 2016, he became the youngest U.S. wrestler to ever win an Olympic gold medal. That same year, Snyder also won the world and NCAA championships. He would go on to become a silver medalist at the 2020 Tokyo Games.
“As big as the sport is in my life, wrestling doesn’t define me. God alone defines me,” he shared with Sports Spectrum. “I’m always consistent with my Scripture study and prayer, and during the pandemic I was able to continue to grow and focus on God and hear what He wanted to teach me.”
As Snyder prepared for qualifying to compete in Paris, he shared a video on Instagram with the caption: “It’s going to happen by faith.”
“Whenever there’s a hurdle for me to overcome, I know I’m not going to do it by my work ethic or by some knowledge that I gain. It’s going to happen by faith,” he said in the video.
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Snyder can also be seen in another video post encouraging youth to build their foundation on God, “the rock.”
In Paris, he will represent Team USA wrestling in the men’s 213.8-pound freestyle weight class.