Faith on the Ice and Snow

JAROME IGINLA (CANADA) ICE HOCKEY

It was eight years ago in Salt Lake City when Jarome
Iginla caught his first glimpse of Olympic glory. Feeling like a kid in
a candy store, the budding NHL star was too busy gawking at the jerseys
hanging around the locker room to notice he didn’t have a locker of his
own.

“I got a chance to play with [Hall
of Famers] Mario Lemieux and Steve Yzerman,” Iginla recalls. “It was a
big adjustment. I was one of the younger guys, and I had a makeshift
area, but it was a huge thrill.”

As a member of the Canadian national team, Iginla
helped his country win its first gold medal in 50 years. The
championship match took place against the host American squad in
arguably one of the most electric hockey games in Olympic history.

Now in his 12th full season with the Calgary Flames,
the five-time NHL All-Star has come a long way from his improbable
upbringing as a biracial kid reared in Alberta, where by divorced
parents-a Christian father from Nigeria and a Buddhist mother from
Oregon-and his grandparents.

While playing junior hockey as a teenager, Iginla
began exploring his father’s faith. That journey has led him to a
continually growing relationship with Jesus. “I’m extremely blessed in
so many ways,” Iginla says. “I want to serve Christ, and in doing that
I want to give back in as many different ways as I can. By serving my
family and friends and others, I’m trying to say thank you to God every
day.”

BROCK KREITZBURG (USA) BOBSLED

When Brock Kreitzburg was a kid, he used to stand in
front of a mirror and practice giving interviews as an NFL star. Turns
out, Kreitzburg’s preparation has been quite useful-just not in the way
he once imagined.

The former all-conference football player at the
University of Toledo now answers probing questions about bobsledding-a
sport he admits he learned about through the iconic movie Cool Runnings.

Just six years into the sport, Kreitzburg was
representing the USA in the four-man event at the 2006 Winter Olympics.
While his highly touted team finished a disappointing sixth, Kreitzburg
has managed to enjoy a successful career with six gold medals and seven
silver medals in World Cup competition. “It’s really by God’s grace
that I’ve been successful in my athletic endeavors,” he says.

Kreitzburg, who accepted Christ during college, has
relied heavily on his faith in the last two years. During a time when
he admits to taking some of his focus away from God, he discovered a
nagging hip injury that would require radical reconstructive surgery. 

“This year was like I was a rookie again,” Kreitzburg
says. “Because I had the hip replacement, I’ve had to go out there and
prove myself again. There have been several times that I’ve literally
cried out to Him, but He’s been faithful. My plans all crash and burn.
So I trust that His plan is what’s best for me.”

To learn more about Brock Kreitzburg’s testimony and his Olympic quest, visit brock bobsled.com.

ERIN PAC (USA) BOBSLED

After six years on the competitive bobsled circuit,
Erin Pac was still searching for that elusive first medal performance
in the two-woman event. As she lined up on a brisk November day at the
track in Whistler, British Columbia, something peculiar took place.

Pac decided to have fun and let loose. More
importantly, she chose to surrender the moment to God. “It was a very
weird feeling because I’m so competitive and I don’t like to lose or do
poorly,” Pac says. “It worked out that time because I won the bronze,
but at the Olympics, I might not win a medal. My goal isn’t always to
win that medal, but to be happy and know that I did the best I could do
on that day because He was with me.”

Originally a track athlete at Springfield College in
Missouri, Pac, a four-time international bobsled medalist, grew up
attending church. But it was the influence of pastor Derek Strain, her
team chaplain in Lake Placid, New York, that has helped her fully
embrace the concept of divine purpose.

“God gives me the strength to do what I can do,” Pac
says. “I know He’s put me here for a reason. I don’t know what that
reason is. That reason could be to win an Olympic medal. That reason
could be to just show my light to everyone else or to be a good
witness. It’s taken me a long time to get that point of trust, but now
I realize that it’s not always about winning a medal.”

To view videos of these and other Christian Olympic athletes competing or sharing their testimonies, visit faithfulathletes .charismamag.com.