“You’ll see me give honour to God”: Elijah Winnington’s Olympic Tribute
Amid what is a deeply controversial Olympic Games for Christians, the performance and witness of Christian athletes like Silver medallist Elijah Winnington gives reason for hope.
The Paris 2024 Olympic Games have deservedly received a good deal of negative coverage surrounding its degenerative and blasphemous portrayal of Leonardo da Vinci’s famous painting, “The Last Supper”. However, behind all the controversy, a number of Christian athletes participating in the Games are using their platforms to give glory to God.
One such athlete is 24-year-old Queenslander Elijah Winnington — a former swimming world champion, now in his second Olympics, who came from behind on the opening day of the Olympics to secure Silver in the individual men’s 400-metre freestyle event.
In June 2021, before the delayed Tokyo Olympics took place, Winnington told the Gold Coast Bulletin that he takes a knee before every event and commits the upcoming race to God.
He doesn’t pray that he will win. He thanks God for what he has already been given:
“It’s massively important. You’ll see me give honour to God once I finish my race too.”
On Sunday, after his Silver medal win, Winnington was as good as his word.
All Glory to God
Speaking with a reporter after the event, he honoured both God and his family for the result. Unfortunately, Nine Entertainment decided to cut those comments from their published interview.
Winnington’s family doubled down on his remarks in a post-race interview with Channel 9, with his father, Jeff, saying, “we honour God in this situation”:
“That’s why we do what we do, and that’s why he does what he does — and, you know, to have that purpose behind it tonight, I mean… we are just super proud of him as a human being.”
This has been a consistent message from the Winnington family, who told Citipointe Church’s Review Magazine in 2021 that they aimed to raise their children to glorify God.
According to that article, the parents say that “watching their sons keep God at the centre of their choices as adults is the most rewarding aspect of parenting. Seeing their sons achieve success in their respective fields is tremendous, but nothing compares to watching them serve and love Jesus.”
Elijah’s mother, Debbie, says of her sons:
“I believe that a lot of the choices our boys make today are from the conditioning when they were little. I think we have to be mindful about how we want the end picture to look while we’re on the parenting journey.”
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Sunday’s Silver at Paris was not the first — nor has it been the last — Olympic medal Winnington has secured. In Tokyo, he won Bronze as a heat relay swimmer, although he says he didn’t feel that he deserved the medal — and he hadn’t even opened the medal box.
He followed up his Paris Silver with an exceptionally strong performance in the men’s 4 x 200-metre freestyle relay, resulting in a Bronze for the Australian team (who were not expected to medal at all in Paris amid a very strong swim field).
Fox Sports called Winnington’s swim “one of the gutsiest Aussie performances of the Paris Games,” given he had just failed to medal in the 800-metre freestyle final.
Elijah Winnington — The Road to Paris
The Brisbane-based swimmer is a graduate of King’s Christian College and debuted in the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, where he won a Gold medal in the 4 x 200-metre freestyle relay.
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In 2022, Winnington swam a personal best and won Gold at the World Aquatics Championships in Budapest, Hungary. Following that race, Winnington posted a photo to his Instagram profile, with the caption: “Glory to God”.
Winnington has been outspoken about his faith for some time. Speaking with the Gold Coast Bulletin in 2021, he explained: “Faith is massive in my life and I believe it is something that gets me through the water.”
As early as April 2020, following his Gold medal win at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games meet, the swimmer appeared on Citypointe TV’s Influencing Society Podcast. Asked about the role of faith in his swimming, he said it is “the most integral part of my performance really”.
The young swimmer explained that he prays before every race and listens to worship music as he walks to the block pre-event.
Not only is Winnington’s faith something he believes in and that helps his performance:
“It’s something that I know can touch others that maybe aren’t a believer or a follower of Christ. And I believe that’s why I’m put in the world of swimming — is not to show the world how good I am at swimming because of God; it’s to touch those that maybe don’t know God because I do.”
Winnington says that faith is “the reason” he swims.
“It’s because you know without that I wouldn’t really have a purpose in my swimming or in my life but because of, you know, Christ and because of the faith that I have in him, I’m able to, you know, give it to others.”
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Other Christian Athletes
Elijah Winnington is not the only Christian athlete competing at this year’s Olympic Games in Paris.
Joining him is fellow Australian Nicola Olyslagers, a Silver medalist from the Tokyo Olympics in the high jump event.
As The Daily Declaration reported in 2021, Olyslagers — née McDermott — “cleared 2.02m in Tokyo to set the Oceania record and take home the silver medal”.
Following the event, she posted to Twitter:
Jumping with the peace that you are loved can take you to heights you have never seen before.
Olympic Silver Medalist 🥈#JumpingforJesus pic.twitter.com/va4UYkc6ca
— Nicola McDermott (@NMcDermott202) August 7, 2021
Her post-event interview went viral. “My hope is that the stadiums will be filled again in a post-Covid world.”
Not even just for athletic performances, but we’ll see revivals again in the stadiums, and that people would hear a message of faith and a Gospel that would really inspire like they did in Billy Graham’s [time] decades ago.
But it is not just Australian athletes representing Christ in Paris this year.
In fact, Christianity Today compiled a non-exhaustive 28-person list of “Christians to Cheer On at the Paris 2024 Olympics” — highlighting believing athletes from Germany, South Africa, Japan, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Samoa, the Philippines, Fiji, Columbia, Brazil, Canada, South Sudan, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Nigeria, Uganda, Saint Lucia and Jamaica.
The list includes Kiwi weightlifter David Liti and champion swimmers Adam Peaty (Great Britain), who came to Christ in 2022, and Caeleb Dressel (USA).
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You can find the full Paris 2024 Olympic Schedule here. View the medal tally here.
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Image courtesy of International Network of Churches – INC via Facebook.
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What a fabulous witness! Thank you for sharing this marvellous story.
Inspiring article Cody, thank you.
Elijah’s Grandparents attend my church. They say that they are so proud of Elijah’s witness for Jesus, but it does come at a cost. Because he is so open about his reliance on God and not afraid for it to be public, he cops flack.
It is spiritual warfare, and pressure that most do not know about, abounds.
Our Australian Christian athlete’s need our prayers. They are in the spotlight, and the media are not always supportive.
Blessings and courage to Elijah and all of them.
In a world where there is so much negativity it is awesome to hear a story like this. Congratulations on both your achievements in sport and your openness about your beliefs Elijah. It takes a lot of courage.
Thanks Cody, for this uplifting article and there are many praying for France and all those attending the Olympics and participating in it. Love France website is looking for 1 million prayers.
If you haven’t heard about it go check it out as Christians across the world join in prayer for France.