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 2008 Olympic Champion Decathlete Bryan Clay

Until 2008, only five American men had won the Olympic gold medal in the iconic decathlon event: Jim Thorpe (1912), Bob Mathias (1948 and 1952), Rafer Johnson (1960), Bruce Jenner (1976) and Dan O’Brien (1996). That all changed at the 2008 Games in Beijing when Bryan Clay added his name to that impressive list. 

In this conversation, Clay talks about his gold medal performance, how his unique upbringing brought faith into his life, and how he has balanced his career expectations with a healthy perspective of how God sees him:

Chad Bonham: When did you first realize that the Olympic dream was something that might be attainable?

Bryan Clay: I didn’t really know that I could be an Olympian until I qualified for the Olympics. You always set goals but for me it wasn’t much different than a kid saying, “I want to be in the NFL.” It was just a dream. You don’t actually expect it to happen. I would say that I wanted to be an Olympian, but it was just a means to remain popular and cool. So even when I was competing at the U.S. championships in 2001, I finished in third place but there were a couple guys that were missing that could score higher than what I scored. Then I went back the next year and finished second. I scored a little higher but I felt like maybe I just gotten lucky again. The thought of making the Olympics still didn’t make sense to me. Then in 2003, I scored a little bit higher but then I got injured. So I thought everything would have to go just right for me to make the Olympic team. Then in 2004, we knew there was the possibility I could make the team, but it wasn’t a reality until I stepped onto the track for the first event of the year—which was the U.S. Championships—and I ended up winning the trials. That’s when it was like, “Oh, I guess I can do this Olympics thing.”

Bonham: How has your faith played a role in this Olympic journey?

Clay: When I was a kid, my mom left. She became a Christian while she was gone and came back. That’s sort of the shortened version. When she came back, she started making us go to church. I said the prayer numerous times in junior high and high school to ask Christ into my heart. Every time I went to church I’d say the prayer again because I didn’t understand how God could be okay with the type of person that I was. I wasn’t a good kid. So when I got to college, I got into trouble and continued to make bad decisions. My faith was through my parents, through my mom. It wasn’t my own faith. I wasn’t convicted by it. I didn’t make decisions based on my faith. My beliefs in things like politics and what was right and wrong didn’t match up with what my (Christian) faith would dictate. It was just what I thought was okay. 

So it was during my junior year that I hit rock bottom and I had some soul searching to do. I was at a crossroads and had to decide if I wanted to maintain this lifestyle I was living. When I looked down that path I was headed down, God gave me a clear vision of where it was leading and I didn’t want to have anything to do with it, so I turned the opposite direction and ran the opposite way and I’ve been running that way ever since and things have been great. My faith is my foundation. It’s where I draw my strength. Without my faith, I think it would be very easy for me to have a family that’s in disarray, to have my priorities out of order, to make decisions that could derail my path to success. But because I have this foundation of faith, I like to believe that it’s my compass. It keeps me on the path that I want to be on. It keeps my family one of my priorities and it allows me to have balance in my life. It allows me to make good decisions that will bear good results.

Without my faith, I think that I’d be lost and I don’t think that I’d be as successful as I am today. Through my faith and through track, I’ve learned so many life lessons and learned so much about myself. My journey has been unbelievably fulfilling and now I get to take those lessons that I’ve learned and I get to talk to corporations and Boys and Girls Clubs and churches and teams and my kids. I get to share those things all over the world and with all different walks of life in the hopes that I might inspire them to be the best that they can be and so they can have true success in whatever it is they’re doing.

Bonham: Throughout your career, how have you managed your own expectations and the world’s expectations versus the reality that your identity isn’t wrapped up in the results?

Clay: There’s this whole question of, “Does God really care if you win?” There are people starving in Africa. Do you really think he cares if you win a gold medal? I’ve seen five people praying before a race and I might think, “Just let me be Your favorite today.” That’s not necessarily what God is concerned about. Does God care if you win a game or a race or a gold medal? I’m going to venture out and say, no, probably not. But what He does care about are the lessons you’ve learned along the way through the win or the loss. Whether you win or lose, I think God’s number one goal for you is that you bring glory back to Him. If that means you have to lose for God to get the glory, then that’s what’s going to happen. If you have to win for God to get the glory, then that’s what’s going to happen. But that’s what God is concerned with. He’s concerned with the journey, with the lessons and the process of refining.

Bonham: How do you hope that your athletic success impacts others?

Clay: I just want His will to be done in my life. My ultimate desire is for God to be glorified. I want people to see God’s faithfulness in my life and hopefully they’ll be inspired. That’s what I’m trying to do with my book. I’m not trying to beat anyone over the head with Bible and tell them that they’re going to hell if they don’t accept Christ. My goal is to tell my story and hopefully people will see God’s faithfulness through that and not be able to deny that there’s a God. Ultimately I believe that what my medals are for. I like to call them my stones of remembrance. When I go around and show people my medals, people say, “How did you that? How did you manage a family and your foundation and the media and training six or seven hours a day? How did you manage that and still be successful? How was your wife okay with you being gone for weeks at a time and she’s still happy and your kids are happy? How did you travel over a hundred thousand miles a year? How did you do it?” That presents the opportunity for me to talk about God’s faithfulness in my life. I think that’s what God is concerned about when it comes to sports and what we’re trying to do as athletes.

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 Groundbreaking Summer and Winter Olympic Medalist Lauryn Williams

Lauryn Williams has traveled quite the Olympic journey. She dashed onto the scene with a surprising silver medal performance at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, and then failed to medal in 2008. But Williams triumphantly returned to the podium in 2012 to receive a gold medal alongside her 4x100-meter relay teammates.

Not ready to call it a career, Williams traded in her track cleats for bobspikes and has found renewed energy as a key member of the U.S. Women’s Bobsleigh Team where she made history at the 2014 Sochi games as the first American woman to win a medal in both Summer and Winter Olympic Games (and the sixth athlete overall).

But more importantly, Williams has grown in her Christian faith and come to a greater understanding of what it means to have a relationship with God. In this interview, Williams talks about her athletic journey, the transition into bobsledding, and how she hopes to impact others through prayer and influence:

Chad Bonham: I remember your first Olympics in 2004 when you were one of the younger competitors and you had a lot of expectations within the track community. How much of that 21-year old athlete has remained and how much has changed?

Lauryn Williams: I think I am very different now than back then. The talent is still inside me and the fight has recently resurfaced but other than that I am completely different.

Bonham: After some disappointing results in the previous Olympic relay races, how satisfying was it to finally get the gold medal in 2012?

Williams: It was wonderful to be part of helping that team get a gold medal. The lesson for me was learning how to play my role and appreciate it.

Bonham: How did you first get interested in bobsledding?

Williams: I bumped into Lolo Jones at an airport and I asked about her experience.

Bonham: What do you enjoy most about the sport?

Williams: It’s a small culture that loves what it does and could care less about fame and fortune. Bobsledders just want to do this because they love it and it shows each and every day.

Bonham: Tell me about your spiritual journey.

Williams: I was running away from a relationship with God because my father was forcing it on me. I went to find my own church to spite him and actually ended up loving it. From there, I began to grow in my own personal relationship with Christ. 

Bonham: For you, what does it mean to be a Christian athlete and do you feel any extra pressure that comes with the platform?

Williams: It’s all about understanding that God is behind every performance, good or bad, and that trusting Him will always leave you satisfied. Also, it’s about being given a grand stage to show your faith and God’s love through your performances. I really don’t feel any extra pressure being a Christian athlete.

Bonham: What are some specific ways that your faith in God has helped you through challenges in your athletic career and your life in general?

Williams: I’ve been able to trust that He always has a plan for me and that everything is happening according to His plan.

Bonham: What are some things you feel like He is teaching you today through His Word, through His Spirit or through the example of others?

Williams: I am learning a lot about collaborating and understanding different perspectives. I have not worked in this sort of team environment before so I have a lot of room for growth. I’m also learning how to pray for others in a more specific way than I have done previously.

Bonham: How important is it to have teammates that share your beliefs and how often do you lean on each other for spiritual and emotional support?

Williams: It’s tough when you’re unsure about a teammate’s beliefs or when you have to standby as you watch a non-believer struggle. As I get older, I often see how knowing and believing God’s words can prevent and relieve both major and minor conflicts. I try to exercise wisdom and understanding so I can be a positive example.

Bonham: What is the ultimate message you want people to see through your life as an athlete, an Olympian and as a follower of Christ?

Williams: It is better to be happy than sad, grateful instead of entitled, and loved by the Lord than loved by the world.

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 USA Olympic Team/NBC Sports.

A Conversation with Olympic Champion Hurdler Dawn Harper-Nelson

Growing up in a rough East Saint Louis neighborhood, Dawn Harper-Nelson knows something about overcoming the odds. But her natural leaping ability and speed put her on the proverbial fast track to follow in the footsteps of another hometown hero—Jackie Joyner-Kersee.

While not many expected much from her at the 2008 Beijing Games, Harper-Nelson again defied the odds with a gold medal performance in the 100-meter hurdles and won proved it wasn’t a fluke by repeating the feat at the 2011 World Championships and then taking the silver medal at the 2012 London Games.

In this conversation, Harper-Nelson talks about growing up in East Saint Louis, how injuries drew her closer to God and how winning gold in 2008 proved to be an enlightening experience:

Chad Bonham: When you were growing up in East Saint Louis, how much of your journey as an athlete was influenced by Jackie Joyner-Kersee’s legacy?

Dawn Harper-Nelson: When I was working out at the track, she would come and visit all the time. I’ll never forget the time that she came to me and said she saw something special in me and that I could go really far. So going through elementary, junior high and high school, Jackie Joyner was the known name.

Bonham: We often hear about how East Saint Louis and how tough it is to live there. Is that an accurate portrayal or is it sometimes exaggerated?

Harper-Nelson: It was tough. I wouldn’t say that people exaggerate about East Saint Louis. But it really depends on the parents and the way they raise their kids. There are just certain things you don’t want you’re kids around. There are certain neighborhoods in any community that might not be the safest, but for me, it wasn’t as tough because my mom made sure I stayed involved in positive things and my dad was a positive influence in my life and he made sure I didn’t fall into the trap of getting involved with the wrong kind of people. They also always told me that I had to have my grades right if I wanted to run track.

Bonham: When did you first get involved in track?

Harper-Nelson: It was about the time I was going into the seventh grade.

Bonham: When did you start to realize that you had potential to go far?

Harper-Nelson: I started to do hurdles in the eighth grade. That’s when I realized it was something special for me. When I started running in seventh grade, it was fun and I liked it, but I usually the third place girl. Then when I started to run with the hurdles, the light bulb came on and I was unbeatable. So my first year in high school, I ran at the state meet against the defending champion. She was a senior and I beat her and broke the record. So I realized, “Okay, I may be pretty good at this.” That’s when I realized I wanted to buckle down and do this for real.

Bonham: What led to your decision to go to UCLA?

Harper-Nelson: I don’t know exactly how UCLA came into the picture for me but I think I was mostly looking for a place that had great academics and a great track program. I was looking for a school that had the overall picture. My mom really stressed to me that I needed to keep up my grades in case track didn’t work out. And then when I went to visit UCLA, I was sold and they offered a full ride (scholarship) and that’s all I needed. That’s when I started hearing, “Well, that’s where Jackie Joyner-Kersee went and she was great so maybe you can do it too.” And I was like, “Oh Lord, what have I done to myself?” But it was good to have that (pressure) on me because I had to stay focused every day.

Bonham: How big of a role has Bob Kersee (Jackie’s husband) played in your development as an athlete?

Harper-Nelson: When I graduated in 2006, no shoe companies were offering me a deal. They offered me equipment but nothing that I could really live off. So Bob Kersee came to me and wanted me to keep my dream going. I didn’t have money to pay him and I worked three jobs and he still coached me. He believed in me and told me everyday, “I believe you have this gift.” And he gave me a hundred percent as a coach every time we were at the track.

Bonham: Tell me about your faith journey.

Harper-Nelson: My faith was definitely a part of me growing up. I went to church on Sundays, but I knew that God was real in my life. A lot of people start to look towards God when they get hurt, and when I hurt myself as a sophomore and had knee surgery, the doctors told me I would probably never run as fast again. I was only 15 years old and track was what I wanted to do. So when I came back from that, I realized there must be a bigger plan for me. And then, when I had knee surgery before the (2008) Olympics, that just sealed the deal. I was thinking, “There is another plan for me that I may not see for myself. I’m supposed to reach out to other people and show them what God can do because of what He’s done through me.” I knew that it was all about giving God the glory. And once I crossed the finish line, that’s the first thing that crossed my mind. A lot of people call me the “What” girl because once I won the race, you can watch the footage and see that I’m saying “What” over and over again. But what I was saying, was that

from this big ole globe, God chose this little girl from East Saint Louis out of all the kids who have said, “I want to go to the Olympics.” He knew that I could handle this—the knee surgery and all of the things that come with being an Olympic champion. He took the girl that no one thought would win. He chose me. He entrusted me with this. And after the race, I just broke down crying.

Bonham: When you won the gold medal, it seems like the coverage focused as much on the fact that Lolo Jones lost as it did on you winning. How did you deal with that interesting dynamic?

Harper-Nelson: I didn’t think much about it in the moment. But once I crossed the finish line and took my victory lap, it pretty much became reality during my interviews. The first thing they asked me was, “Did you see Lolo Jones hit the hurdle?” And I was thinking, “If I saw her, I would hit my hurdle.” Then they started to ask things like, “Where are you from?” I had made it to the finals. If someone makes it to the finals, don’t you think you should know a little about them? Because obviously they’re capable of being the best in the world. So they were asking, “Where are you from? Who is your coach?” And I remember one reporter was interviewing me and he looked down at his notebook and there was nothing on the page. So he just said, “Tell me about yourself.” But that’s where I really thanked God because no man can determine my journey. You don’t have to know me because I’ll make you know me.

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 USA Olympic Team/NBC Sports.

A Conversation with NBC Sports Analyst and US Olympic Gymnast Jonathan Horton

Known as one of the steadying forces within the U.S. gymnastics community, Jonathan Horton has collected seven gold medals at the U.S. National Championships, three gold medals at the World Cup, and he brought home a silver and bronze medal from Beijing after his first of two appearances in the Summer Olympics.

In this conversation, Horton talks about how childhood hyperactivity set him on a path to the Olympics, how his time at the University of Oklahoma shaped his personal faith in God, and what he hopes to accomplish in London this summer:

Chad Bonham: From reading your story, it sounds like your parents, instead of putting you on medication, got you involved with gymnastics.

Jonathan Horton: It’s absolutely true. I tell people all the time that if Ritalin had been a popular thing when I was young, my parents would have definitely put me on that. But I had way too much energy. I was out of control. So they put me in a sport that they thought was the most active. Gymnastics was perfect for me.

Bonham: At what point did you begin chasing your Olympic dream?

Horton: It didn’t really hit me until 1996. I was watching the Games in Atlanta on TV. That’s when I first thought to myself, “Wow, this is what I want to do.” That became my number one goal at that point. I was 11 years old. After that, I started training much harder, but it wasn’t until 2004, when I qualified for my first Olympics Trials that I knew this was a possibility. I finished 12th that year and that pushed me to work hard the next four years to make the next team and in 2008 I made it.”

Bonham: What principles have helped you get to this point?

Horton: Gymnastics is such a complex sport. It’s one of the best character building sports in the world. One of the big ones I’ve had to work on my whole life is how to manage my frustration. Ever since I was a little kid, I’ve been extremely competitive and I like to win. It doesn’t matter if it’s a video game or if I’m playing basketball outside with my buddies. I want to win. As a gymnast, the sport is so hard. You don’t learn things right away. It’s not one of those sports where you can jump up on the high bar and learn a new skill in one try. It takes a lot of patience. It takes a lot of time and perseverance. I used to get so frustrated when I couldn’t learn something. It sounds funny now that I think about it because it doesn’t happen anymore, but I used to throw fits when I was 12, 13 years old. I would cry when I couldn’t do something. I had to learn how to overcome that and be more patient and take my time. Now, I’m a much more disciplined person. I know how to be patient and I know how to take my time learning things.

Bonham: What did you bring home from your experience at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing?

Horton: It’s not every day that you get to look at yourself in the mirror and think, “Wow, I have been blessed enough to finally accomplish one of my big dreams.” It was something I’d worked for my whole life. I remember stepping off the plane and seeing all the banners with the Olympic rings. I was just so thankful—more so than for the results. I was thankful to be a part of it and to represent my country in the pinnacle event of my sport. The Olympic medals were awesome. I’ll never forget competing with the team. But just being a part of it, I’ll cherish that forever.

Bonham: Tell me about your faith journey.

Horton: I grew up in a Baptist church here in Houston. I always had God in my life. I always believed in God and had faith in God, but it wasn’t until I got to college that I took my own faith to another level. As a kid, you do it because your parents make you do it. It’s just part of your weekly routine. But it wasn’t until I was challenged with the things outside of my family, you know, the worldly temptations, when my faith really grew. I had to turn to Him. As my training got more difficult and as I was trying to balance school and what my friends wanted me to do with gymnastics, I had to turn to God. My faith grew tremendously. Now that I’m married, my wife and I can work together and push each other in our growth with the Lord. My gymnastics has gotten better. My faith has gotten stronger. God is number one in my life and He’s the reason that I have the success that I’ve had.

Bonham: What was the spiritual catalyst for your growth in college?

Horton: It was a couple of my teammates. My best man from my wedding is one of my best friends in the world. His name is Jacob Messina. We were freshman together. We lived together all the way through college. We shared the same beliefs. Our faith was really strong. We challenged each other. A lot of our friends would go to the bars and party. It was tempting. We’re human beings. Every now and then we’d fall short, but we would challenge each other. We’d remind each other that this wasn’t what God wanted us to do. Before knew it, probably about the end of my sophomore year, we decided to start a Bible study. We invited a bunch of guys from our gymnastics team. There was a lot of accountability for each other. Once we got more people involved, it just helped us grow. We had six or seven guys that would come over to the house. Jacob played the drums. Another one of my friends played guitar and we would worship. My faith became so much stronger once I was on my own.

Bonham: Are you hopeful that God will use you to be a witness wherever else this path might take you?

Horton: That’s always been my prayer. I pray every night that God takes the platform that He’s given me and uses me, speaks through me—not only through my words but through my actions as an athlete. I just pray for opportunities and I know He’ll speak to me and show me those opportunities where I’ll be able to show my faith. I go to Dr. Ed Young’s church down here in Houston and he preached about when it’s right to hide your faith and when it's right to show your faith. He told us that when you feel like hiding it, you need to show it, and when you feel like you’re being prideful and you want to show it, hide it. That really hit me hard. It would be really easy when you’re on live TV and the whole world is watching you to want to hide your faith. You want to avoid the persecution that the world is going to give you for it. But it’s in that moment when I really need to show it. That’s when I need to use my platform as a gymnast to show what the Lord has done for me.

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 USA Olympic Team/NBC Sports.

A Conversation with Legendary US Olympic Champion Gymnast Shannon Miller

She was the leader of the “Magnificent Seven,” the 1996 U.S. Olympic women’s gymnastics team that won the first gold medal in the Team Competition. And with a combined 16 medals from the Olympics and the World Championships, Shannon Miller is the second most decorated American gymnast of all time (just behind Simone Biles who surpassed her at the 2016 Rio Games).

In this conversation, Miller talks about the challenges she faced as an elite international competitor and the life-changing obstacle she most recently overcame:

Chad Bonham: What was the most difficult circumstance you had to overcome during your journey as an Olympian?

Shannon Miller: I dislocated and broke my elbow several months before the 1992 Olympics Games. This was my first opportunity to attempt to qualify for the United States Olympic Team. That opportunity seemed to disappear in the span of about 2 seconds with a wrong landing on an uneven bar dismount. That injury was the turning point of my career. I had to decide, was I going to give up or fight through that obstacle. I chose to fight.

Bonham: How did your faith help you through that situation?

Miller: I have relied on my faith in every situation. During this time, when I wanted to ask “why me,” “why now,” I had to stop myself and just know that God had a plan for me. That injury ended up being the best thing to happen to my career. While I couldn’t do certain skills until the arm healed I was able to work other areas that I normally wouldn’t have had as much time for. I became a stronger, more flexible, more well rounded athlete than ever before. I am thankful for that learning experience and have continued to rely on it for all aspects of my life.

Bonham: In what ways has your faith helped you beyond your competitive career?

Miller: I faced my most difficult challenge in early 2011 when I was diagnosed with a rare germ cell tumor, a form of ovarian cancer. I was confused and upset. I didn’t understand how this was happening. I had a 15-month-old little boy that needed me. Initially there was so much happening, so many tests, that I forgot to breathe. After surgery and learning I would need nine weeks of chemotherapy, I was oddly at peace with the treatment. I knew it would be difficult, although I didn’t realize how difficult until I got started. However, I felt God’s hand at work. I had to let go and trust that He had a plan, a wonderful plan for me. Cancer is certainly not a good thing but that experience has blessed me in ways I never thought possible.

Bonham: How do you hope that your life and the public example you’ve shown inspires others?

Miller: My hope is that my story inspires people to never give up, never set limits on their potential and always rely on their faith as a source of strength. 

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 Shannon Miller.

A Conversation with Legendary Olympic Track and Field Champion Jackie Joyner-Kersee

Jackie Joyner-Kersee is one of the greatest female athletes to grace the planet.

Need proof? 

Her Olympic record alone sets a standard that others have been trying to match for the past 20 years: three gold medals, one silver medal and two bronze medals across four Olympic Games (1984, 1988, 1992 and 1996) and a heptathlon score of 7,291 points in Seoul that has yet to be matched. 

She was also a four-time gold medalist at the World Championships and a star basketball player at UCLA.

In this conversation, Joyner-Kersee talks extensively about how self-discipline, rooted in her deeply held Christian faith, served as the foundations for elite competitive success,

Bonham: It takes a lot of self-discipline to be an elite athlete, but who modeled that concept for you when you were growing up in East Saint Louis?

Jackie Joyner-Kersee: It was my mom. My family modeled it, but my mom was a strong believer in being a disciplinarian. She would tell me that in order for me to do anything, there were certain things I had to accomplish first. If I wanted to go to the community center or if I wanted to go to the track, first I had to make sure my homework was done. Then I had to make sure my room was cleaned up. If everything was right in her eyes, then I was able to go play.

I saw my mom work hard day in and day out. She got up early in the morning to get ready for work, catch the bus and make sure she got to her job on time. She always told us she’d be home at 3:30 and she was always home at 3:30. She made sure there was food on the table so we could eat. That was a living example of example and doing the small things.

Bonham: How did you see discipline play out in your youth and throughout your athletic career?

Joyner-Kersee: As a student, discipline helped me get to school on time. School started at 8 o’clock, but I would get there at 7:30. That discipline overlapped into what I was doing athletically. If you have an event scheduled for a certain time and you’re a minute late, then you are disqualified. If I was working a job and I was supposed to be there at 9 o’clock, I wouldn’t just show up at nine. I’d get there before nine. All of this has helped me understand the importance of discipline.

Discipline is also about respecting other people’s time. My mom was a strong believer in that. My coaches would usually pick me up and she didn’t want them waiting for me. If they were going to be there at a certain time, it was not their responsibility to come to my door to see if I was ready. No, I was supposed to be ready to go before they got there. That’s showing respect for them. Discipline has played a major role across the board in my life. 

Bonham: What did you have to do in order stay disciplined as an Olympic caliber athlete?

Joyner-Kersee: I had a routine every day. I was at the track at 7:30 in the morning doing my warm ups before (coach and now husband) Bobby (Kersee) would get there. One of the things that Bobby would request of us is that we do our warm ups so that when he showed up, we would be ready to go. That helped me get prepared for competitions where you have to be warmed up and ready to go before the race. I had to train for seven to eight hours a day. It was tough to do, but I had to discipline myself to go through that because it was the same thing I would have to do when I competed. It’s like going to school. You read, you study and then you have the exam.

Sunday was always our spiritual day. We didn’t train on Sundays. I always made sure I was going to church and that those things were a part of my lifestyle. 

Bonham: What are the benefits of discipline?

Joyner-Kersee: Time management is one of the great benefits of discipline. It helped me a lot when I got to college. That’s where you really need time management. I had to get to class on time and schedule my day. That was crucial. 

Bonham: How did you make sure you stayed disciplined?

Joyner-Kersee: It’s a mindset. It has a lot to do with goal setting. Goals were and still are a part of my life. When you have goals, you know that there are certain things you can and cannot do. That’s where the discipline comes in. I knew that a lifestyle of partying and going out wasn’t something I didn’t want to do. I knew it would distract me and get me off the course of what I wanted to do.

Bonham: What were some challenges you faced as an athlete?

Joyner-Kersee: With me being an asthmatic, my discipline was really tested. I always had to make sure I took my medicine on a regular basis. I had to respect the disease. I couldn’t live in denial. I was considered to be this great athlete and I didn’t want to believe that I had asthma. But there were times I was extremely sick and I wouldn’t take my medicine so I had to discipline myself to take my medicine and do the things I had to do to keep my asthma under control.

Discipline became a big part of my survival. You know that you’re a world class athlete but then you get out on the track and can’t even run a mile or even a lap. Then you start questioning. You start doubting. Talk about having faith. Then I realized I had to start treating asthma the way I treated my training. Asthma became one of my opponents. I’m trying to beat it and these are the things I have to do on a daily basis. I look at my pulmonologist as my friend and not my enemy. I started using him as a coach. He and the nurses were trying to help me. That was the mindset. Then I started keeping a journal. I would write down the days I was feeling great. If they’d just cut the grass at the track, that was a red flag. I knew that would be a problem. If I had a bad day, I’d write it down and begin to question why I had a bad day.

I did a lot of visualization. This is easy to say and difficult to do. You have to weed out toxic people in your life. They might be the coolest person. They might be your best friend. But emotionally, if you’re on a roller coaster all the time, it’s not really a good situation. That’s tough but that’s where the discipline comes in and you start realizing that you’ve got to figure out a way to get out of that relationship. You have to learn how to say no and sometimes that’s saying no to the people closest to you.

I always try to focus my energy on the things I have control over because if you succumb to the things you have no control over, it zaps your energy and you lose your focus. I’m not trying to control anyone, but it’s making sure I’m controlling my own destiny. 

Bonham: What role has spiritual discipline played in your life?

Joyner-Kersee: I am a firm believer in faith and the discipline to believe that I could travel to California and go to UCLA and go on to make Olympic teams. It took discipline to hold strong and believe in myself and for others to believe in me. That was a test. It took discipline to separate myself from negativity and not to let the drug-infested community suck me in. That took a lot of discipline for a girl growing up in East St. Louis where there was (population) people and to go onto a place where millions lived and to go out there and know that I was going with a dream in mind. It took discipline to not fall victim to the things that might pull me away from that dream. 

Bonham: How can leaders be more disciplined?

Joyner-Kersee: When I was younger, I told myself all I wanted to do was to improve a tenth of a second or a half of an inch if I was running or jumping. If I made a C, how could I take that C and turn it into a B. The steps are realistic goals and small steps to get there. In some cases, you might go leaps and bounds, but I think it’s so important to take the small steps and appreciate those small steps while you’re struggling so that when things start to get a little easier for you, you won’t forget the discipline it took for you to get there. 

Bonham: How has the Bible inspired you to a life of discipline?

Joyner-Kersee: In sports and throughout my life, there have been so many challenges. You think about the patience of Job. I lost my mom when I was a freshman in college. I dealt with being an asthmatic. I had the dream of going to the Olympics. People would tell me I had to be patient. I had to wait. Not that I can compare myself to Job, but there’s the understanding of that kind of patience and discipline. At nighttime when I went to bed, I wouldn’t pray for patience because I realized I was already living through it. I was being taught to be patient. When the opportunity presented itself, I would be ready. I was thankful for the things I had gone through so that one day I could share with others and help them. 

Bonham: How does the concept of purpose fit into your outlook on life?

Joyner-Kersee: I truly believe that God gives us things that we can handle. If we don’t handle things properly, it will be slowly taken away. I don’t know quite yet what my purpose is, but I know that God is using me as a tool in the way He thinks I should be used, not what I think my purpose is. That purpose is still being defined. So that’s why I live each day with the understanding, I don’t know what tomorrow is going to bring. Mom would always say, "Jackie, don’t tell me about tomorrow. Take care of today."

Taking care of today means staying disciplined. If you’re worried about tomorrow, you’ll get off track from the purpose that God has before you. That’s where the mental and emotional discipline comes into place. I’m not going to let one over take the other. You have to understand that you have a purpose and you can’t take your existence for granted.

Bonham: How has your faith helped you deal with tragedy in your life such as losing your mother and your sister-in-law and fellow Olympic champion Florence Griffith-Joyner?

Joyner-Kersee: That’s where your faith comes in and your belief in God and not losing sight of what my mom would have wanted for me or even Florence. We have to be strong for one another. Even in dealing with the loss of a mother or a sister-in-law, having a brother, having sisters, there’s strength. It’s so important because when I’m strong, I’m giving them strength too. We all feed off one another.

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.

  

Lead photo courtesy of Erik van Leeuwen.