Nicola McDermott Australian high-jumper Nicola McDermott, 24, took home silver after competing in the women’s high jump in Tokyo, but God is of greater value to her.
“Jumping with the peace that you are loved can take you to heights you have never seen before,” she tweeted following her Olympic success, adding the hashtag, “#JumpingforJesus”.
Ms McDermott not only took home the silver medal, but also cleared a personal best and set an Oceanian record of 2.02 metres with her leap.
On her blog, Ms McDermott says of her faith, “In the pursuit of sporting success, there was a large turning point in my career when I realised that no gold medal could bring lasting satisfaction to my heart.
“I discovered satisfaction was not found in a performance but found in a person. Everything changed when I was introduced to Jesus.”
Ms McDermott once saw her sport as “a performance-driven passion to bring meaning to life”, but says that now with God, “it is an international platform to make the unbiased, consistent love of the King known”.
Beginning a ministry called ‘Everlasting Crowns’, Ms McDermott says her main focus now is to see “fellow athletes transformed by Jesus’s perfect love, planted in churches and discipled to be a blessing to every place they are sent”.