Nicola Olyslagers won a silver medal for Australia in the high jump at the Tokyo Olympics as Nicola McDermott.
She also set a new national record and proudly shared with millions of viewers how her Christian faith was the secret to her success.
The recently married 25-year-old has told the Bible Society’s Penny Mulvey the back story to her Olympic journey.
Ms. Mulvey writes in Eternity News that Nicola believes she has been given a platform to tell more people about Jesus.
The 186 centimetre tall high jumper’s technique has added to her faith story.
The way she smiles, claps and stretches her arms into the air before every jump appears as if she’s handing everything over to God.
She confirmed that is exactly what she is doing.
In the year before the Tokyo Games, Nicola felt the Lord tell her to train as if she was going to win gold and to believe that she could do it.
She told Ms Mulvey that in the lead up to the Olympics, she was preparing spiritually just as hard as she was physically.
“My whole centrepoint of every day was on prayer and intimacy with God,” Nicola said.
She held prayer meetings and shared the Gospel in the Olympic Village.
“The fruit of that was the joy and confidence of seeing what God was doing and knowing the impact I was having on those athletes.”
“I was fearless because I knew when I was pursuing the highest thing that I could do in that Olympic Games that even if I didn’t make it, my identity in Christ meant that I was more than enough.”
