“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.", wrote St. Paul to his protégé Timothy. It is a marvellous summary of a life well-lived. Paul invokes the image of the Graeco-Roman games, with the winning athlete receiving the laurel crown.  

The classical athletic games were (re-)introduced into Western Europe at the end of the 19th century by the French Philippe de Coubertin. Struck by what he saw on the playing fields of English public schools, Baron de Coubertin became convinced of the value of physical education for developing national character. De Coubertin’s Olympic games were intended for amateurs and for gentlemen. Since his time, they have been substantially reinvented as games drawing the whole world together in peaceful celebration, honouring the achievements of all races and nations, women as well as men, the disabled as well as the able-bodied.    

This year the Olympics are in Paris, and I’m planning to be there for a few days at the beginning. The city will be packed with visitors from across the globe who gather to enjoy a vast range of sports. Amongst those present, will be a team of chaplains. Our own Ben Harding, from Lyon, is leading an Anglican chaplaincy team. At this huge sporting occasion there will inevitably be considerable pastoral need – not least there will be very many young athletes under huge pressure – and appropriate evangelistic opportunity.  

100 years ago, Eric Liddell competed in the 1924 Olympics, also in Paris. Refusing to run in his preferred 100 metre race because the heats were held on a Sunday, Liddell ran instead in the 400 metres, taking gold by a margin of 6 metres and setting a new world record. Soon after the Olympics had finished, Liddell left for China, where he worked as a missionary. He stayed in China even when it became dangerous to do so after the Japanese invasion, dying there following internment at the age of 43. Liddell has recently been given a posthumous honorary degree by Edinburgh University. The chair of sport at the university said ‘what Eric Liddell represents is the best of all of us and the promise and invitation of what we could do to help others’.      

‘Faster, higher, stronger – together’, runs the Olympic motto. I like the recent addition of ‘together’. Very few of us have been or will be Olympic athletes. But all of us can aspire to be the best version of ourselves. And we can work together to bring out the best in others. I hope and pray that this summer will be a period of rest and refreshment for us all. May we be renewed and strengthened for the work of another academic year that we may seize joyfully all the opportunities that lie ahead in our families, communities, workplaces and churches.