Running, a gift from God - sprinter Christine Bloomfield on her faith

After an excellent 1999, sprinter Christine Bloomfield was confident of selection for the Olympics. It didn’t quite work out. “I got chickenpox five weeks before the Olympic trials. I ran the trials, came six and fifth and thought I'd be going to the Olympics, if only just in the relay. They didn't select me. I was distraught. I’ll just have to train harder this year and make sure they don’t leave me behind.

“However, God had an amazing sense of humour. I had prayed that I would go to Sydney and even though I did not go to compete I was invited to go and work for the 2K+ Christian radio project and to attend the ACE sports ministry conference.”

Christine traces her Christian faith back to a challenging question when she was eleven. She was asked, “If you died what would you do, where would you go? -heaven or hell?” “I thought, ‘Gosh! I would go to hell.’ So I decided then, at the age of eleven, that I wanted to become a Christian.”

As she grew up, her faith strengthened and her talent blossomed. She has no doubt that running is part of God’s plan for her life. “God made me the person that I am and he gave me the ability to run. I think it is a gift God has given me. It's a talent I want to use to honour him. In my athletics I don't just pray that God will help me to run fast. I pray that I will have an influence on people's lives.

“I don't need to be a world-class athlete; I just need to be there in God's plan. I believe God wants me to be in athletics. I believe he wants me to run and he wants me to be in the Great Britain team to encourage and also to pray, to help people come to know him. That's what it is all about.

“There are a number of Christians in the Great Britain team, though not as many as we would like. When we are at the AAAs championships Mark McAllister comes and meets with us and we have a prayer time, and for me those prayer times have been invaluable. They have been times of building us up, strengthening and encouraging us not to lose faith, to believe that we are having an impact as Christians on the Great Britain team.

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