Olympic Chaplains — Not Street Evangelists — Offer Spiritual Care in Paris

As a dedicated sports fan, I am extremely excited to watch this year’s lineup of the 2024 Summer Olympics, starting in Paris on Friday, July 26.

The U.S. women’s basketball team is competing for their 8^th consecutive gold medal; Simone Biles may just win it all — again; and though I know nothing of the sport, I am always excited to catch a fencing bout. However, as a Christian, I am also paying close attention to the ways in which religion is being utilized — for good and for bad — at this year’s Olympic Games.

While athletes train tirelessly to compete in the world’s greatest sporting events, so too, are another group of individuals gearing up to head to France. This year, numerous official Olympic chaplains across Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Muslim, and Buddhist faith traditions are partnering together to set up a chaplaincy center in the Olympic and Paralympic Village where athletes will reside. Spiritual care is on its way.

In contrast, some Christian religious groups who are not connected to the official Olympic chaplains such as the Southern Baptist International Mission Board and Youth With A Mission turn this international sporting event into a missionary trip. On their website, YWAM cites the desire to “impact the nations,” echoing the great commission.

They are well-organized: Some of IMB’s members have already signed up to be official Olympic volunteers — an attempt to evangelize on the front lines. YWAM is planning to host “afternoon evangelism” which may look like live concerts or street evangelism in Paris.

These attempts at evangelism on the Olympic stage are misguided and inappropriate. An international sporting event, full of athletes from numerous countries and faith traditions, is no place to try to spread the gospel. Athletes and fans alike are simply there to compete and enjoy the events. The religious petitions of evangelists are merely a distraction.

Luckily, Olympic sports chaplains pick up where Christian missionaries fall off. While missionaries attempt to relate to other athletes under false pretenses, using rest stops or Olympic pins to entice, sports chaplains are invested in familiarity, relationality, and overall spiritual care. Christian missionaries could learn a thing or two from Olympic chaplains.

The Olympics first enlisted official chaplains in the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea. Following the terrorist attack against the Israeli Olympic team at the 1972 games, the International Olympic Committee recognized a need for care beyond the physical body, and began to put together a team of official chaplains to provide spiritual care to athletes.

Olympic chaplaincy has come in many forms: through prayer, consoling a losing athlete, offering a listening ear, or sometimes it is, as 2012 chaplain Frankie Mulgrew framed it, “the ministry of hanging around.”

Stuart Weir, the secretary of Major Sports Events Chaplaincy Committee, told Religious News Service that chaplaincy is a critical point of care for Olympic athletes.

“If an athlete understands that they are significant because God created them and loves them, they are free to compete and use the gifts they have been given,” Weir said. “They do not have to be successful to prove themselves worthy of God’s love.”

And who better to provide spiritual care to athletes than former athletes themselves? One of the most notable things about Olympic sports chaplains is that some were once athletes, and even Olympians. Madeline Manning Mims won the 800-meter dash in 1968. She was one of the first official chaplains to be invited to the Olympics in 1988. Her chaplaincy work began far before the official invitation, however. When speaking with CNN, Mims described, from personal experience, the natural woes of being an athlete and how spirituality can help. 

“[I]n competition there is a lot of fear and pain. It’s a part of who an athlete is. And to get through that, to break through that, so that you can produce at your highest level, many of them pray for God’s help,” she said.

American high jumper, Jesse Williams, credits chapels held by chaplains as the driving force behind calming his mind before a competition. “It’s easy to get lost in the world that we live in and put something like sports before God,” he told Charisma News. “When you go to chapel, you’re humbling yourself and understanding that God needs to go first in everything you do.”

Other athletes may request prayer before an event, attend a chapel service the night before, or simply sit alone in a quiet moment by themselves.

This year’s Olympic Games are hosted in France — an already-contentious space for religious expression. France’s law — laïcité, loosely translated as secularism — bans ostentatious displays of faith and religious culture in public sectors like schools and government institutions. Established to separate the Catholic church from French politics, laïcité encourages its citizens to not distinguish themselves by their faith traditions. This rule primarily isolates those of faith traditions that require certain attire, such as some branches of Islam. Though not outwardly illegal, religious evangelism is already culturally frowned upon in the public sector. Religious missionaries who debark in France may meet pushback from French citizens.

While Christian missionaries are planning to pass out tracts to unsuspecting pedestrians, sports chaplains of all faith traditions are working together to create a positive and respectful religious experience for all involved. They plan to set up their shared space within the Olympic and Paralympic Village in a way that is both respectful of different faith traditions and sensitive to France’s regulations.

The Associated Press reports that, “Christians compromised on the kinds of crucifixes and icons they’ll bring to the hall — without images of Jesus on the cross, for instance, to respect Protestant sensitivities” and that “signs pointing to [the multi-faith center] will be discreet so as not to inconvenience non-believers.” Muslim and Jewish chaplains are intentionally placing themselves next to each other as a model of peaceful coexistence.

Olympic chaplains of all faith traditions are seeing to it that athletes are prioritized and cared for. Their goal is not conversion. Missionaries must take notice.

So, though this year’s Olympics may be visited by many evangelists, it is my hope that their efforts don’t overshadow the outstanding work that Olympic chaplains do to create a safe and supportive spiritual environment for all of the athletes.

Let the games begin.