High Jump as Worship: Aussie Christian Athlete Nicola Olyslagers at Paris Olympics
High jumper Nicola Olyslagers, formerly Nicola McDermott, has won silver for Australia at the Paris Olympics, paying tribute to God as her “strength and song”.
For the first time ever, two Australians have been on the podium for a field event, with Nicola Olyslagers and Eleanor Patterson securing silver and bronze respectively in the high jump event this week.
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Olyslagers spoke to ABC Sport, crediting watching “Chariots of Fire” — about British Christian athlete Eric Liddel’s performance at the 1924 Paris Olympics — as her inspiration for the performance.
The Scottish Gold medalist is quoted as saying, “I believe God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast! And when I run I feel his pleasure.”
In that same vein, Olyslager told ABC Sport, “For me, it’s like being in a church. My worship might not be my singing, it’s in my feet jumping over a bar.”
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Standing at the top of her mark before her third attempt at clearing 2 metres, Nicola broke into song. She managed to clear the bar — securing a silver medal after Ukrainian world record holder Yaroslava Mahuchikh.
When asked what she was singing, she responded:
“That’s a good question. I was in the zone, hey? If we have some lip readers on site … usually whatever comes to my head. Honestly, God is inside of my heart and sometimes he just brings out these verses or these songs, and I just start singing. It’s something that comes over me, because in the moment I have a faith that doesn’t shrink away from pressure but rises to it.”
This is her second Olympic medal, having won silver in Tokyo 2020 — setting an Oceania record of 2.02 metres. She has also previously won bronze at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games in 2018, bronze at the Budapest World Championships, and gold at the Glasgow World Indoor Championships.
Sport as Worship
In the lead-up to the Paris Olympics finals, Olyslagers posted to Instagram, “Jesus in her heart and a smile on her face. See you soon High jump finals.”
Nicola sees her sport as a way to bring glory to God:
“The moment right before jumping is such a sweet thing to me. It requires a trust that no matter how much training and preparation has been completed, this moment is about surrendering control and trusting. It’s the simple faith to believe that what happens next isn’t the thing that matters, but the One who is holding you through it all. In these moments sport becomes more than a performance, it becomes the platform and instrument to praise God with.”
In the lead-up to the Olympics this year, she shared Romans 15:13 with her nearly one hundred thousand Instagram followers:
“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.”
Tokyo 2020 Olympics
Following her silver medal win at the Tokyo Olympics, Olyslagers (then McDermott) went viral for post-event comments:
“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.”
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
Everlasting Crowns
She has never been backwards in speaking publicly about her deep evangelical faith. She explains her journey to Christ on her website:
“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. It was not the religious kind of meeting that presents itself once a week, but it was an intimate encounter, which has impacted every single day of my life since I made a decision to follow Him. This decision has overflowed a love in my heart to see His will done and gospel known in every nation, stadium, school, church and community I travel to. Jumping now with God, is an international platform to make the unbiased, consistent love of the King known. His love has spurred me on to dream a lot higher and bigger than my own wants or needs. I live a life that surpassed every dream I had set for myself – for when I surrendered them all to God, He fulfilled them all in a more excellent way!”
Since 2017, she has run a ministry supporting and discipling Christian Athletes — Everlasting Crowns. The ministry aims to see “athletes transformed by Jesus’s perfect love, planted in churches, and discipled to be a blessing to every place they are sent.”
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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 Athletics Australia via Instagram.
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What a powerful testimony from a true champion!
What a beautiful , young person, an example to others of goodness ! Wish she were my daughter.