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Spiritual participation in the Olympics
On April 17 , 100 days before London’s 2012 Summer Olympics, British gymnast Louis Smith looked forward to his chance to thrill the home fans. He told the London Evening Standard: “Having the roar of the crowd behind us will be an amazing feeling.”
For sporting fans that “amazing feeling” is already being stoked by articles featuring memories of vintage gold: Romania’s Nadia Comaneci scoring the first “perfect 10” in women’s gymnastics in 1976; British decathlete Daley Thompson earning consecutive golds in Moscow and Los Angeles (1980 and 1984); and Jamaican Usain Bolt striding 100 meters in 41 steps in Beijing four years ago.
But the feeling of anticipation is also growing for many in the United Kingdom and around the world who don’t usually pay much attention to sport, because the Olympics are so much more than a great sporting event. They’re a ray of promise that bursts into the global psyche every four years, like sunshine penetrating the incessant mist of disturbing headlines.
Enjoy 1 free Sentinel article or audio program each month, including content from 1898 to today.
June 11, 2012 issue
View Issue-
Letters
M.M. Bennetts, Carmen Louise Votaw, Carol Logian
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On your marks...!
Kim Shippey, Senior Staff Editor
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Spiritual participation in the Olympics
Tony Lobl
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Completeness and fulfillment
Alistair Budd
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Shining like stars
Heather Hayward
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Prayer in a former war zone
Sarah Matusek
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Life lessons
Janet Cowgill Distel
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The immediacy of healing
Betsie Ellington Tegtmeyer
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Struggling with clutter?
Heather Woodman
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Golf goals and God
Parker Engel
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'Pa' for the course
Brian Kissock
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A debate deserving deep prayer
Margaret Rogers
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Disarming ethnic terrorism
Annette Kreutziger-Herr
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Rely on spiritual reasoning
Maya Dietz
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A healing support to family
Toni Gaspard
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Christians and Muslims working together
Frederick Nzwili
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Returning to religious roots
Cathy Lynn Grossman
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Healed after a trampoline fall
Mark Asher
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Pain stops; resentment toward mother fades
Name withheld
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Where wealth and unselfishness meet
The Editors