Olympian Chooses Life Over A Medal

Posted by Lorren on August 23, 2008

I saw this a few minutes ago, thought it was very cool, so I thought I’d like to pass it on.

Tasha Danvers, a hurdler for the British track and field team, was the sixth-fastest hurdler in the world right before the Athens games in 2004. Then she found out that she was pregnant.

The track and field world encouraged her to have an abortion, but she chose to give up the hopes of competing in Athens in order to keep her baby. In the Olympian world, 4 years is a long time. You usually only get a couple tries at most, so she was perhaps giving up her only chance. Her baby boy, Jaden, was born in December of that year.

But Mark 8:36 came to her mind… What does it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, and loses his soul? Athletes train very hard to win medals, so winning was all the world to her. But she chose to have her baby instead.

While it’s happy that she kept the baby, the story has an even happier ending. In Beijing, she won the bronze in the 400 meter hurdles. So now she has the baby, and a medal.