When Sports and Christianity Took Center Stage at the Olympics

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WACO, Texas (July 23, 2024) – For many athletes, sports provide a place to develop their values, express their identities and share their faith with others. The Olympics have long been an important platform for Christians to do this work, said sports historian and author Paul Putz, Ph.D., director of the Faith & Sports Institute at Baylor University’s George W. Truett Theological Seminary and author of the forthcoming book, The Spirit of the Game: American Christianity and Big-Time Sports (Oxford University Press) in September. 

Of course, Americans aren’t the only ones who find religious purpose in the Olympics, Putz said. Perhaps the most famous example of a Christian Olympian is Scottish runner Eric Liddell, who was favored to win his best Olympic event during the 1924 Paris Olympics but withdrew after learning the 100-meter heats would fall on a Sunday. In doing so, Liddell showcased a greater story about Christians in sports, popularized through the 1981 Academy Award-winning film Chariots of Fire.

Still, American Christians have been especially interested in connecting faith with the Olympic Games. Below are three examples Putz features in The Spirit of the Game.

Jack Robinson, 1948 Olympic team

One of Baylor University’s own, Jack Robinson was an All-American basketball player for the Bears and a pastor who got his start helping lead youth revivals in the 1940s.

In 1948, Robinson saw his fame grow when he was invited to join the U.S. basketball team in the London Olympics. Coming in the wake of World War II, the Olympic Games had an especially significant meaning for the world, as countries sought to rebuild following the devastation of global conflict. The American basketball team represented hopes for a more cooperative and inclusive future, too, with a racially integrated roster that included a Native American (Jesse ‘Cab’ Renick) and an African American (Don Barksdale, who identified Robinson as one of his closest friends on the team).

For Robinson, competing for a gold medal offered a chance to both share and grow in his faith.

“In the face of what people around the world are up against, I was made to wonder how my religion would react,” Robinson reflected in 1948. “I found my Christ adequate again.”

After the team won gold, Robinson returned to the United States, where he embarked on a long career as a Baptist pastor. In the 1950s, his fame as a symbol of the connections between faith and sports led to one more important role in athletics: he served as a founding member of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

Rafer Johnson, 1956 and 1960 Olympic teams

Born in Hillsboro, Texas, Johnson moved to California as a child. He enrolled at UCLA in the 1950s, where he was a standout in several sports, even playing basketball for legendary coach John Wooden.

It was in track and field that Johnson earned his greatest fame, however. In the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne, Australia, he won the silver medal in the decathlon. Four years later, he won gold in Rome, transforming into a household name and making it on the cover of TIME magazine.

Johnson’s accomplishments in sports had important cultural and social implications. In 1960, in the midst of the civil rights movement, he was the first Black American to carry the U.S. flag in the opening ceremony for the Olympics in Rome. His Christian faith was a central part of his identity, too. He was involved with ministries like Campus Crusade for Christ (now Cru) and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, where he was one of the first Black Christians in a leadership role.

“I thought about men like Jackie [Robinson] and Jesse Owens and Ralph Bunche, and all the hearts and minds they had changed just by being themselves,” Johnson later wrote. "Maybe, in my own way, I could do the same by simply worshiping where I wanted to.”

Johnson’s ability to connect with people from a variety of backgrounds was evident throughout his life. His role as an ambassador was recognized in 1984, when he was given the honor of lighting the Olympic flame before the Los Angeles games.

Madeline Manning Mims, 1968, 1972, 1976 and 1980 Olympic teams 

Madeline Manning Mims first made her mark in the 1968 Olympic games, where she won gold in the 800 meters. She followed that up with a silver medal in 1972, and also made the U.S. Olympic teams in 1976 and 1980 (although she did not participate that year because of a U.S. boycott).

A product of the famed women’s track program at Tennessee State, Manning Mims carried on the legacy of “Tigerbelle” Olympians like Wilma Rudolph, the celebrated American sprinter who overcame childhood polio and went on to become a world-record-holding Olympic champion in the 1956 and 1960 Olympic Games.

At the same time, as a Black woman whose track career began during the civil rights movement and before Title IX opened up more athletic opportunities for women, Manning Mims faced significant social barriers. Her Christian faith helped her to face those challenges. It also gave her a desire to use her platform to share her faith with others. In the 1970s, she began a ministry career as a speaker, gospel singer and author.

Perhaps Manning Mims’ most important legacy has been her work with Olympic chaplaincy. She experienced some of the most tumultuous Olympics of the 20th century: the Mexico City protests in 1968; the terrorist violence in Munich in 1972; and the boycott of the Olympic Games in Moscow in 1980. 

She also experienced the pain of failure, with a disappointing finish in the 1976 games.

“Day after day, even through the end of the Olympics, I was able to deal with more individual athletes who suffered painful defeats and disappointments,” she wrote in 1977. “Always I was able to reach into my own reservoir and identify with them.” 

Out of those experiences, Manning Mims became an important advocate for providing chaplaincy services to Olympians, a role that she continues to fill to this day.

ABOUT PAUL PUTZ, PH.D.

Paul Putz, Ph.D., program director of the Master of Arts in Theology and Sports Studies and director of the Faith & Sports Institute at Baylor University’s George W. Truett Theological Seminary, specializes in the history of sports and Christianity in the modern United States, while also researching and writing on subjects related to race, religion and the Midwest in American history. His forthcoming book, The Spirit of the Game: American Christianity and Big-Time Sports, a comprehensive history of American Protestant engagement with sports in the 20th century, ​will be published by Oxford University Press in September 2024. Putz’s research and writing has been featured by Christianity Today, Slate, National Public Radio, Religion News Service, among others, and he has been interviewed as an expert on sports and Christianity by the New York Times, Sports Illustrated, Associated Press and more. As director of the Faith & Sports Institute, he also serves as editor and contributor to the Faith & Sports Blog. 

ABOUT GEORGE W. TRUETT THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY AT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY

Baylor University’s George W. Truett Theological Seminary is an orthodox, evangelical school in the historic Baptist tradition that equips God-called people for gospel ministry in and alongside Christ’s Church by the power of the Holy Spirit. Accredited by the Association of Theological Schools, Truett Seminary provides theological education leading to the Master of Divinity, Master of Arts in Christian Ministry, Master of Arts in Contextual Witness and Innovation, Master of Arts in Theology, Ecology and Food Justice, Master of Arts in Theology and Sports Studies (online), Master of Theological Studies, Doctor of Ministry, and Ph.D. in Preaching. Truett Seminary also offers joint degrees through Baylor University school/college partnerships in social work, business, law, music, and education. In addition to the flagship Baugh-Reynolds Campus in Waco, the Seminary also has locations in Houston and San Antonio. Visit the Truett Seminary website to learn more.

ABOUT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY

Baylor University is a private Christian University and a nationally ranked Research 1 institution. The University provides a vibrant campus community for more than 20,000 students by blending interdisciplinary research with an international reputation for educational excellence and a faculty commitment to teaching and scholarship. Chartered in 1845 by the Republic of Texas through the efforts of Baptist pioneers, Baylor is the oldest continually operating University in Texas. Located in Waco, Baylor welcomes students from all 50 states and more than 100 countries to study a broad range of degrees among its 12 nationally recognized academic divisions.