A Conversation with Two-Time Olympic Soccer Gold Medalist Lauren Holiday

Lauren Holiday has experienced the indescribable high of Olympic gold (in 2008 and 2012), the devastating low of falling short at the 2011 World Cup, and everything in between. That wide range of emotion has both tested and strengthened her relationship with God.

In this conversation, the former US Women’s National Team star talks about how she fell in love with soccer, the people that helped her fall in love with Jesus, and what it’s like to play for your country on the world’s biggest stages:

Chad Bonham: How did you get started playing soccer?

Lauren Holiday: I started playing soccer because my brother played soccer. I followed everything that he did. I played on the boy’s teams until I was 12. I just loved it and had a passion for it. You couldn’t get a soccer ball away from my foot.

Bonham: What impact did the national team have on your interest in the sport? 

Holiday: I didn’t really get into the women’s national team until the 1999 World Cup. Then I realized how badly I wanted to play for my country and play in the Olympics. I was a nerd. I would put together team books for Team USA but it was really just all my best friends that I thought would be on Team USA with me. It made it real to me. That’s when I knew I could play on that stage one day.

Bonham: What was the basis for your spiritual foundation growing up? 

Holiday: I was raised Lutheran my whole life. I went to church on Sundays. My mom raised us in the church. It was a slower paced service. There were a lot of older people except for a few young people in the youth group. So at that time, I was going to church. I was baptized as a baby, but I don’t think I really knew what it meant to have a relationship with God on my own.

Bonham: When did you start to grow deeper in your faith?

Holiday: In junior high school, I went to some youth camps and that’s where I started to discover the presence of God. I was able to experience God through the singing and by talking to other girls that had similar experiences. That opened my eyes but I still had to seek out that relationship. I didn’t drink or do any of those things so I was very loyal in that sense. While I was in high school, I made the U20 women’s national team. Tobin (Heath) was on that team and the entire team was Christians including the head coach (Tim Schultz). He was on fire for the Lord. I just remember praying one night, “God, I want what he has.” He was so passionate and he would cry and he would laugh. I wanted that too. And that’s when I really started to seek the Lord.

Bonham: Talk about the contrast between the 2008 gold medal and the World Cup loss in 2011. 

Holiday: I’ve learned to give God the praise in the highs and the lows. That’s not easy. It’s not easy to lose the World Cup and say, “Thank you Lord,” because it hurts and it doesn’t feel good. But especially at such a high level, your life is a roller coaster. Our lives are completely full of highs and lows. I’m so grateful that my confidence in Christ is never shaken. My identity in the Lord will never be shaken. My career will come and go but being faithful to that has made my relationship with Him what it is.

Bonham: What is the future of women’s soccer and are you still fighting for relevancy? 

Holiday: People are just more drawn to men’s sports. It’s a fact. Men are more athletic. It’s a quicker style of play. But I think women’s soccer is so important. Soccer is the biggest sport for little girls. It’s so important for us to give these girls a dream and something they can aspire to be. It’s not to be paid millions of dollars. None of us play for that. None of us female athletes play for that. 

Check out Chad Bonham’s book Glory of the Games featuring Olympic athletes such as Shannon Miller, Dave Johnson, Josh Davis, Tamika Catchings, Ruth Riley, Michael Chang, and Tobin Heath.

Photos courtesy of US Olympic Team/NBC Sports.

A Conversation with U.S. Olympic Soccer Player Tobin Heath

Four years ago, Tobin Heath was the young kid on a team full of veteran stars. But as a member of the 2012 Olympic gold medal and 2015 World Cup championship teams, she’s become a full-fledged star in her own right. Well-liked among her peers and highly respected by the rabid U.S. Women’s National Team fans, Heath appears to have many years of top-shelf performance in her future. Yet what’s most important to the starting midfielder is her bedrock faith in Jesus Christ and her desire to share God’s love with others.

In this conversation, Heath talks about her faith journey, how that faith helps her deal with the craziness of international soccer competition, and how she hopes to have a positive influence on the next generation of female athletes:

Chad Bonham: Can you share a little bit about your Christian faith journey?


Tobin Heath: I was fortunate enough to grow up in a Christian home and an awesome family. Our family was just really passionate about Jesus. I had a great experience growing up. Like many kids, I wanted to do my own thing so it wasn’t until around the end of high school and start of college that I started to develop my own faith. I stopped piggy backing off of my family’s (faith) and wanted to figure out what it was all about. I got super interested in things and obviously from there it’s just grown. Like anyone who has a relationship (with Jesus) knows, the coolest thing about it is that it’s infinite how much you can learn and begin to understand. It’s something that grabbed me.

Bonham: Do you feel like your reason for being successful as an athlete is bigger than soccer?

Heath: Absolutely. My platform might be a little bigger than someone else’s, but everyone has a purpose. For me, that purpose in my life right now is soccer. There’s a cool, personal testimony that goes along with it. You spend so much time with your teammates in environments where they see how you live. It’s one of the coolest ways to just love people. Obviously in the world of sports, you go through different ups and downs than in normal life. You might be on top of the world playing or you’re sidelined with an injury. Your teammates see you through the good and the bad. They see where your foundation lies in those moments. You can also be there for them to share the love of Christ to them through those times when they’re in need and desperate for some truth in their lives.

Bonham: How does your faith help you deal with the highs and lows of elite international competition?
 

Heath: I can’t even imagine going through life without my relationship with Jesus. So much of it is me relying on Him and me needing Him, not just in those crazy circumstances but in the day-to-day activities. During that time at the World Cup, it was a rollercoaster ride, but it was neat to just see His hand on that. It’s more than just winning or losing. There are so many relationships that go deeper than that. He has a plan in it all. You have to trust that. Even though it’s not the ideal outcome—I mean, everybody wants to be winners—you have to trust that God has a greater plan for this even when you can’t see it.

Bonham: What’s the key principle that helps you stay emotionally and spiritually even-keeled?

Heath: Know your place. I know it kind of sounds a little backwards, but I just really think of God as being so incredible. The depth of who He is and His character is unfathomable and the fact that we can know Him just a little bit is so cool. He knows us inside and out. It’s remarkable in many ways. When I try to think about Him, I’m just in awe. That humbles me in any situation. When I need strength in hard times, I know I have a God that can move mountains. Or if I’m going through a time of success, I can just rejoice in the Lord and give glory to Him knowing that He’s given me the gifts to be able to accomplish what I have. Everything comes back to Him.

Bonham: How much of your platform is used to encouraging young female athletes?

 
Heath: As the popularity of women’s soccer continues to grow, we just want to give that back to the sport and continue to inspire young girls to have something they can dream about, that they can be professional athletes. It’s possible for them. So we want to continue making those dreams possible while we’re living our dreams at the same time. It’s really neat when you become a role model. It’s also a lot of responsibility. But if you see it as a platform where you can pour into others for Jesus with love, that’s where I want to be. Becoming known or noticed in my sport isn’t what drives me to work hard and want to be the best I can be. It’s Jesus. That’s why I play. I play to glorify Him. I worship Him with the gifts I’ve been given. Through that, I just hope He can be glorified. I try to keep that as my motivation when I step out on the field every day whether it’s practice or a game. It’s to work as hard as I can in thankfulness for what He’s given me and hopefully some of that can come back to Him.

Bonham: How do you navigate that fine line between thanking God for the gifts as opposed to thanking God for the success?

Heath: It’s not about that worldly outcome in terms of winning or losing. It’s about Him being known and not in a way that forces it upon other people but in a way that lets people know how He’s transformed my life and how He’s given me purpose and meaning and love and satisfaction. That’s the message of Jesus. It’s not a platform to impose on people. It’s a platform to love people. Our God’s going to be victorious. He’s the Creator of the universe. I’m just a vessel trying to do my part with what I’ve been given.

Bonham: What do you cherish most about your Olympic experiences?

Heath: The Olympics is a very special event because you get to represent your country along with all the other sports. One of my favorite things about soccer is how the art and the passion of the game somehow unites people and nations and classes and races. That’s something that comes out of the game and how it’s displayed and why people enjoy watching it and supporting it. Anytime you have an event like the Olympics or the World Cup, people get to enjoy it on such a huge scale. Obviously we’re looking forward to getting past this last World Cup and we’re really excited in our preparation to win gold in London. I think that’s the focus now. We have the team to do it.

Bonham: Is standing on the podium as an Olympic gold medalist something you can describe?

Heath: I don’t think it’s something you can put into words. I don’t think it should be. The feeling that I was most shocked about was just seeing your country’s flag being raised. I was shocked by how moved I was by that. I’m usually a pretty mellow person, but when that happened, I thought that was pretty cool.

Pick up Chad's book Glory of the Games to read about more inspirational stories from Olympic athletes past and present such as Kevin Durant, Josh Davis, Shannon Miller, Michael Chang, Ruth Riley, Tamika Catchings, Chris Byrd, and many more, by clicking HERE.

Photos courtesy of U.S. Olympic Team and Sky Blue FC.