Why This Olympic Track Star Finds Her Value in ‘Christ Only’
By Movieguide® Contributor
Despite her two Olympic golds and world records, track star Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone finds her value in Christ alone.
“I think it’s something that I feel like every athlete, you know, kind of struggles with,” the track and field athlete said on the “Unfiltered Waters” podcast. “You work your whole life for these moments and to achieve this goal. It’s hard not to be consumed with that and to equate your success or your value as a person with those things. And the balance is so key.”
McLaughlin-Levrone gave an example from this past year as she dealt with a knee injury and several key losses in her career.
“I mean just this past season, I had some injuries, I took some losses, it wasn’t what I was expecting for it to be, and the old Sydney would have been completely crushed and destroyed by any of that, you know,” she admitted. “To the point where there’s been seasons where I just wanted to quit. It’s like why do I even do this? I’m not good at it, but, like you said, the balance of realizing, like, first of all, my value is already fixed and assured in Christ only.
“1 Peter 1 talks about [my value] it’s imperishable, undefiled, unfading as well as it’s far more precious than rubies and gold. Like there is so much value outside of what we do,” she continued. “What we do is an opportunity to just point the glory back to God. You can enjoy what you do, but it’s not who you are. God’s given us work as a means to glorify Him.”
Movieguide® recently reported how McLaughlin-Levrone navigates fame with faith:
As she navigates fame, McLaughlin-Levrone holds on to her faith.
“I think faith is the foundation of, like you said my life,” she explained, “and from there, like that helps me navigate everything…[its] the lens in which I view the world through, and so when I am navigating ups and downs and complications, it’s looking at it from the lens of, ‘Okay, how would God want me to deal with this? How would Christ deal with this?’ And you know, it helps a lot of the confusion that that can happen.”McLaughlin-Levrone recently published a book, and the podcast hosts asked her if she feels like there’s pressure to succeed in her other endeavors to the same level as she does on the track.
“I think, honestly, like as opportunities arise, I just want to do them the best that I can,” she said. “I do like to write. Maybe not so much about life. I like to write poetry more so than anything else. But I think whether opportunities with brands or whatever it is, just doing it the best I can. And I feel like the track kind of speaks for itself.”
McLaughlin-Levrone made her Paris Olympics debut on Sunday where she took first place in the preliminary heats of the 400m hurdles event.
She ran a 53.60 and is looking to improve her time in the finals, which will air on Aug. 8, and hopefully break her own world record.
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