Olympic Swimmer Hunter Armstrong’s Pre-Race Prayer: ‘Give Me the Strength’
By Movieguide® Contributor
Olympic gold medal swimmer Hunter Armstrong is sharing how he brings his faith to the pool.
“Every time I swim, I point up to the sky because it’s God first. Like none of this matters without Him, and you know, it got to the point where…it became a habit, just part of the pre-race ritual, and I didn’t like that,” Armstrong said on the “Sports Spectrum” podcast.
He explained that while sends up a quick prayer before every race, he doesn’t necessarily do it after if he doesn’t win, a habit he changed going into the 2024 World Championship.
“That was something that I made an effort toward this year is you don’t only accept everything that comes with it when you win,” Armstrong continued. “You can’t be upset and be like, ‘Oh shoot. He didn’t answer my prayer.’ Because that’s where things get shady.”
“Michael [Phelps] was racing against me in the fifty back at Worlds,” he said. “Like we’re both praying. Not to necessarily win. I’ve sort of changed my prayer because I don’t want to ever say, ‘Please God, let me win.’”
“My prayer before every race is, ‘Give me the strength to do my best and may whatever I do bring glory to your name,’” he revealed.
For more inspiring sports stories, check out Sports Spectrum.
Armstrong competed in his first-ever Olympics in Tokyo 2020 as part of the 4×100 meter medley relay, helping Team USA achieve gold in that event.
“The Olympics was never really on my radar,” he told Olympics.com before the World Championships. “I just never really thought about it. I didn’t see my life going in that direction.”
He’s now looking ahead to Paris 2024.
Since his first Olympic run, Armstrong has won “15 world championship medals (seven gold, three silver, five bronze), set the world record in the 50m backstroke (23.71 seconds, but it has since been lowered to 23.55 by Russia’s Kliment Kolesnikov), and established himself as one of the premier backstrokers in the world. In Paris, he figures to be a medal contender in the 50m and 100m backstroke events, and be on numerous relay teams for the U.S.,” Sports Spectrum wrote.
Armstrong took home the silver medal at the World Championships.
He wrote on Instagram, “It’s been a pleasure Doha and it’s always an honor to represent 🇺🇸 Time to go home, the job isn’t done.”
