New Zealand runner Nick Willis set for 5th Olympics as he lives out faith in Jesus
ByCole ClaybournAug 2, 2021The Olympics are full of stories of athletes defying odds, defeating physical norms and pushing boundaries. It’s safe to say New Zealand track and field star Nick Willis checks those boxes.
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The 38-year-old will compete in his fifth Olympic Games in Tokyo, making him the first male track and field athlete from New Zealand to compete in five Olympic Games.
But it almost didn’t happen. The fastest 45 runners in the 1,500-meter race get to race in Tokyo, and Willis snuck in with thelast possible spot.
Despite qualifying for New Zealand’s Olympic team, Willis’ prospects of running in Tokyo were in jeopardy when his time made him the 47th fastest — just on the outside looking in. But two higher ranking runners opted to compete in other events, paving the way for Willis, whocompeted collegiately for the University of Michigan, to make his record appearance.
The men’s 1,500m eventbegins Tuesday in Tokyo with the first three heats. The semifinal rounds are Thursday, while the final will take place Saturday night.
🇳🇿 OLYMPICS UPDATE 🇳🇿
NICK WILLIS@nickwillis IS GOING TO HIS 5TH-STRAIGHT (‼️) OLYMPICS!
The 2x Olympic medalist ageless wonder from New Zealand clinched the 45th-and-final qualifying spot to Tokyo in the 1500m!
STORY:https://t.co/75LArFY86x#GoBluepic.twitter.com/5c1JXhcsNe
— Michigan Track & Field / Cross Country (@UMichTrack)July 2, 2021
While Willis will try to outrun his opponents this week, for the better part of his early life, he was also trying to outrun God. He lost his mother to cancer when he was just 4 years old, and for the next 20 years he sought to cover the pain in all sorts of ways.He wrote for SportGoMag that he thought success in running would bring him the happiness and pleasure he was seeking, and rid him of the anger that was stewing inside of him for years.
“All I had achieved was nothing compared to missing my mother, blaming God (if He even existed), for her unfair death,” Willis wrote. “In depression, I felt like I had nowhere else to go. I needed guidance and a direction with real purpose.
“Something started tapping on my heart, telling me that my mom was watching my life from Heaven. I tried to fight it off with more alcohol and late nights, but the knocking on my heart became louder and louder. This became impossible to deny. I knew God was chasing me, and had been for many years. I decided to finally stop running from Him.”
In October 2003, Willis made the decision that changed the trajectory of his life and his career.
“I asked Jesus to forgive me for my anger and disobedience towards God, and for all the people I had hurt along the way,” he wrote. “He came into my heart and swept me clean. All the anger and bitterness towards my mother’s death became healed, and I was ready to restart my life fresh.”
Willis made his Olympic debut a year later at the 2004 Athens Games. He won a silver medal at the 2008 Beijing Games and a bronze medal in 2016 in Rio, becoming the oldest to ever win a medal in the men’s 1,500m. He’ll look to add to that collection this week, and he’s got plenty of momentum heading into the race. This year he ran a mile in under four minutesfor a record 19th straight year.
“It’s a little bit of an obscure record I suppose — someone made me aware of it a few years ago,” Willis told NZME at the time. “It’s been on my radar, a fun thing to aim for, to keep that streak going.”
Willis, who says that he’s a “Jesus follower” inhis Twitter bio, recently posted a photo with some thoughts he had journaled and called the Tokyo Games “the final chapter” in his journey:
Going to use this time in Tokyo to reflect a little and document my thoughts.pic.twitter.com/QdL1lfypup
— Nick Willis (@nickwillis)July 29, 2021
He’ll be looking to add one more accolade to his storied career. He’ll be running with God, this time, instead of away from him.
“My life has changed forever, and I will never feel empty or unfulfilled again so long as I don’t put God on ‘call-waiting,'” he wrote for SportGoMag. “God is real, and He walks alongside me every day. He convicts me when I stray, and loves me when I’m lonely. But greatest of all, He has given me His promise that I will enter His Heavenly Kingdom, and celebrate with my mother and family, when my time here on earth is finished.
“Nothing I have done during my life has allowed me to deserve this. My selfish existence is proof that God can and wants to forgive everyone. We just have to ask.”
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SS PODCAST: U.S. Olympic silver medalist Daniel Roberts on identity, God’s grace, Paris 2024
BySports SpectrumOct 3, 2025THIS IS THE SPORTS SPECTRUM PODCAST WITH MATT FORTE, FEATURING DANIEL ROBERTS
Daniel Roberts is a two-time Olympic track and field athlete representing the United States. In college, he was a four-time All-American at Kentucky, where he broke numerous track and field records. At the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, Roberts took the silver medal in the 100-meter hurdles.
Today on the podcast, Daniel Roberts discusses the importance of faith in overcoming adversity, and how his identity has evolved beyond athletics. He emphasizes the significance of daily spiritual disciplines and the difference between knowing about God and having a personal relationship with Him. Roberts also shares about his Olympic experiences and his aspirations for the future, including the upcoming 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
>> Do you know Christ personally? Learn how you can commit your life to Him. <<
Daniel Roberts wins the silver medal by THREE THOUSANDTHS of a second!#ParisOlympicpic.twitter.com/P7PbKMPygD
— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics)August 8, 2024
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–Olympic gold medalist Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone on Sports Spectrum in 2024
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U.S. heptathletes Anna Hall, Taliyah Brooks take gold & bronze at worlds as they live for Christ
ByKevin MercerSep 24, 2025The 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles are still three long years away, but if Saturday at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo was any indication, the U.S. heptathlon team in L.A. may be the strongest ever. Anna Hall, a 24-year-old from Colorado, captured gold in Tokyo with 6,888 points, while Taliyah Brooks, a 30-year-old Texan, tied for bronze with 6,581 points.
Hall is the first American woman to win the heptathlon at the worlds or Olympics sincethe great Jackie Joyner-Kersee in 1993, while Brooks’ mark was apersonal best. U.S. women won two heptathlon medals for the first time since 1987 (Joyner-Kersee won gold, Jane Frederick won bronze). The achievements in the two-day, seven-event heptathlon were part ofa record-setting performance at the championships for the Americans.
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Anna Hall ran into the history books in Tokyo! 👏#WorldAthleticsChampspic.twitter.com/KdU96ZVo1O
— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics)September 20, 2025
BRONZE AND PERSONAL BEST! 🥉🇺🇸
Taliyah Brooks shines in the heptathlon at Worlds, scoring a personal best 6,581 points to take bronze behind Anna Hall and Kate O’Connor ⚡#WCHTokyo25 coverage presented by@brooksrunning
📸:@daniellealakijapic.twitter.com/kYG7QwcQad
— FloTrack (@FloTrack)September 20, 2025
“The USA does make great heptathletes,”Hall told NBC Sports moments after the final race. “So, it really means the world to be able to bring the title back home where it belongs.”
“I was just proud,” Brooks added. “It’s been a rough journey for me.”
Anna Hall and Taliyah Brooks are bringing heptathlon medals back to the United States after impressive showings at Worlds!#WorldAthleticsChampspic.twitter.com/vUrzWDFxIW
— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics)September 20, 2025
Hall entered the 2024 Paris Olympics with lofty expectations aftertaking silver at worlds in 2023, but finished fifth while still regaining her form following knee surgery that January. Brooks earned her way to her first Olympics in Paris and finished 11th. Both have impressed since then.
At the Hypo Meeting in Austria on May 31 and June 1,Hall recorded 7,032 points, a personal best that tied her for second on the all-time performers list. Joyner-Kersee, who has posted thetop six scores in history, holds the all-time high of 7,291.
In March, Brooks won bronze in the pentathlon at the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Nanjing, China. She then finished second in the heptathlon at Décastar in France in July and second again — this time to Hall — at the USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in August. Brooks posted a then-personal-best 6,526 points at the competition, which she surpassed on Saturday.
Both Hall and Brooks credit their resilient mindsets to the work of God in them.
“When something goes wrong,”Hall said on theSports Spectrum Podcast in May 2024, “there’s something better coming if you just stay faithful.”
Later in the podcast, Hall — who was also featured inSports Spectrum’s Summer 2024 magazine — said reading the Bible has led to tremendous spiritual growth in her life.
“He is my Lord and Savior,” she said. “Jesus is the reason we’re here and that we’re able to have hope, and that affects all aspects of my life, but definitely sports. So for me, that’s been something I’ve started to get more comfortable sharing — my own growth and my faith over the last few years.”
Brooks also appeared on the Sports Spectrum Podcast, in December 2024, where she talked about the importance of telling others about Christ.
“We are supposed to go and make disciples,”she said. “We each have unique gifts, and we’re supposed to use those gifts. I think my time here on earth, if I’m doing those things, then I will experience eternity.”
"Go and make disciples. That is what we're meant to do."
Olympian Taliyah Brooks on the latest Sports Spectrum pod.https://t.co/ZEvA2UoU6Wpic.twitter.com/qJxKdNR6SX
— Sports Spectrum (@Sports_Spectrum)December 14, 2024
As Hall and Brooks seek to help usher in a new golden age for the United States in the heptathlon, they both know they are here ultimately as witnesses to the work of Christ and the advancement of His Kingdom on earth.
>> Do you know Christ personally? Learn how you can commit your life to Him. <<
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‘Trusting the Lord,’ Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone wins 1st flat 400m world title
ByCole ClaybournSep 18, 2025Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone has been rewriting history for years. Already one of the greatest hurdlers ever, the two-time Olympic gold medalist and six-time world record breaker added a new chapter Thursday in Tokyo, this time in a new event.
Running the flat 400 meters at a world championship for the first time,McLaughlin-Levrone won gold with a time of47.78 seconds, the second-fastest time in history. Only German Marita Koch’s world record of 47.60, set in 1985, has ever been faster.
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CHAMPIONSHIP RECORD! 😱
SYDNEY MCLAUGHLIN-LEVRONE IS A 400M WORLD CHAMPION!#WorldAthleticsChampspic.twitter.com/4Y4r0hn98A
— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics)September 18, 2025
“I think barriers are broken when the time is right,”McLaughlin-Levrone said after the race when asked if chasing the world record was her goal. “I think records come when they’re supposed to. It’s really just about executing and trusting the process.”
Silver medalist Marileidy Paulino of the Dominican Republic ran 47.98, the third-fastest time ever. McLaughlin-Levrone, however, became the first person to win world titles in both the 400m hurdles and the flat 400.
It was not an easy road. After planning to debut in the flat 400m at the 2023 World Championships, injury forced her to withdraw. Choosing the flat 400m this season was a leap of faith, one fueled by a desire for growth after dominating the hurdles.
“My coach (Bobby Kersee) loves boxing terms,” she told the media. “He said, ‘You’ve got to go take the belt. It’s not yours. You’ve got to go earn it.’ That’s what we wanted to do today. There was a lot of doubt from a lot of people, I think, for me coming into this event.”
In the semifinals this week in Tokyo, she broke Sanya Richards-Ross’ 19-year-old American record with a 48.29. In the final, McLaughlin-Levrone lowered her best by another half-second.
But she says the story isn’t only about medals or records. It’s about her faith in God.
“Just grateful,” she said Thursday after her win. “You know it’s there, and when you put the work in and see it come to fruition, it’s always a bit of disbelief. I knew it was going to be a really fast race with great competition, so to see it all come together, there’s always just a bit of awe and wonder.”
A lot of hard work, a lot of prayer and a lot of “trusting the process” went into it, she said.
“I know there was a lot of doubt from a lot of people in me making the switch, and I just wanted to show myself I could do it,” she said. “Ultimately it was trusting the Lord and trusting the process. I’m just really grateful.
“It just shows that anything really is possible, you’ve just got to work for it and work really hard. Just trust the Lord.”
That reliance on God has marked her entire career. She’s been unashamed in sharing her faith on the track and beyond, even when it risked criticism.
“There’s been a lot of talk that I’ve received just about, you know, ‘You might not want to talk so much about [faith]. You might lose endorsements, you might lose deals, this, that, and the third,’”she said on the Sports Spectrum Podcast in 2021. “But, I mean, I don’t live for the approval of people, so I don’t have to worry about any of those things. And even if an endorsement or something wants to leave, I know that God will provide for me in the way He sees fit. So I’m not going to compromise the truth just to make people feel more comfortable.
“…I continue to speak the truth because I know it’s what I’m called to do, and just grateful to have community around me that supports me through that even if all the people outside of that don’t.”
In this video from a Sports Spectrum conversation, Olympic gold medalist@GoSydGo continues to give the glory to Christ 🙏https://t.co/NZ6o9G6F4hpic.twitter.com/rD5P5mvGhq
— Sports Spectrum (@Sports_Spectrum)August 8, 2024
Her boldness has only deepened in recent years as she’s relied on her relationship with Christ to help battle perfectionism and anxiety.
“I think this past season of being injured, not being able to perform at my best, and really having to lean on the Lord in all of this was just a great reminder that not everything is always going to be perfect,”she said on the Sports Spectrum Podcast in January 2024. “Not everything’s going to go your way. You’re going to face trials of many kinds, but showing the genuineness of your faith, like James 1 talks about. … Whatever next year brings, I’m going to stick to the same script of going out there to honor and glorify Him and leaving it all out there on the track.”
Her gold medal in Thursday is proof of that posture. She didn’t need to run for validation, but instead ran free, trusting God with the outcome.
“I love being honest and open with people and sharing the truth,” she said on the podcast in 2024. “I think first of all, that’s the most loving thing you can do. I think for me, the biggest part is just not trying to lean on myself for that strength in order to do that. … I think sometimes I tend to do that out of my own willpower as opposed to truly leaning on the Lord and seeking that discernment and wisdom first. And I think that’s where I’m being refined right now is staying rooted in the Vine and not trying to wander off and do it the way Sydney wants to do it.”
As she looks toward the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, her hometown, McLaughlin-Levrone hasn’t ruled out an attempt at competing in both the 400m hurdles and flat 400m.
“We’re going to have to talk about the schedule on that one,”she told NBC on Thursday with a smile. “I’m going to need some days off in there if that was the case because it’s tough fields in both events. You have to respect them. So, in order to put the best performances together, you have to make sure your body’s ready to do that.”
For now, though, the reigning champion of the one-lap race is simply content.
“Ultimately it was trusting the Lord and trusting the process,” she told the media. “I’m just really grateful.”
>> Do you know Christ personally? Learn how you can commit your life to Him. <<
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SS PODCAST: Olympian Chaunté Lowe shares incredible story of faith, healing, restoration
BySports SpectrumAug 22, 2025THIS IS THE SPORTS SPECTRUM PODCAST WITH MATT FORTE, FEATURING CHAUNTÉ LOWE
Chaunté Lowe is a former track and field athlete who represented the United States in four Olympics (2004, 2008, 2012, 2016). She won a bronze medal in the high jump at the 2008 Summer Olympics and a silver medal at the 2005 World Championships in the same event. In 2012, she captured a high jump gold medal at the World Indoor Championships. She is the American record-holder in the women’s high jump.
Today on the podcast, Chaunté Lowe shares her inspiring journey of faith, resilience and overcoming adversity. From her tumultuous childhood in California to her Olympic aspirations, Lowe discusses how her faith in God has shaped her identity and helped her navigate life’s challenges, including her 2019 battle with breast cancer.
>> Do you know Christ personally? Learn how you can commit your life to Him. <<
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–Cindy Sember, 2024 Olympian
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