SPORTS April 5, 2004 Issue

Safe from sports injuries

By Beverly Goldsmith

Do loads of sunshine and an outdoor life help to make Australian sportsmen and -women highly competitive—and famous? Possibly. We Australians like to think of ourselves as a force to be reckoned with in cricket and rugby. We celebrate our athletes' triumphs in the Olympics—especially in swimming. And we're proud when our tennis stars have their names engraved on the trophies at the French, Wimbledon, and US Open championships.

Each summer down here, I enjoy watching the Australian Open tennis tournament at Melbourne Park on TV. I admire the stamina, agility, and skill it takes to play the game at a high level. This year, however, we saw an unusually large number of on-court injuries.

When these incidents happened, it came to me that I could pray about them. I remembered that God cares for all His children. He keeps them safe. No one could fall out of God's care. I really tried not to accept that injuries are a normal part of sport, as one player asserted that they are during a TV interview.