Article January 22, 1996 Issue

No trickiness in God

Monty Hoyt

There was a time in my life when I felt I had the rug pulled out from under me because of an injury. The healing of this condition came through a firm conviction that God was not some distant deity, aloof and uninterested, but was the very essence of my life and my being.

When I was a senior in high school, I won the United States Men's Figure Skating title and competed in the World Championships. Afterward, in an effort to master a back flip that could be added to my routine on ice, I attended a gymnastics session at my school. Even though I was in a safety harness, I landed one attempt awkwardly and injured my knee. From that point on, my knee would give out without warning when I was skating. I became very cautious and protective of the knee, and my progress in the sport halted altogether.

Alarmed, my skating coach insisted that I have the injury examined and have something done about it. The medical verdict was a trick knee, a common injury for football players and other athletes. The doctors told me they could operate on it, but they could not guarantee full use of the knee again. This was an outcome I would not accept.

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