2008 Summer Olympics Beijing

EDITOR’S NOTE: Each day during Baptist Press’ coverage of the Beijing Olympics, we are publishing a letter from a Southern Baptist missionary who served in China during the years before the People’s Republic of China was founded in 1949. Some of the letters reveal these missionaries’ great love for the people of China; others provide […]

BEIJING (BP)--Pitcher Monica Abbott contributed a perfect game and a 3-0 record to the U.S. women's softball team's 8-0 run at the Beijing Olympics, but the squad fell 3-1 to Japan ...

CHEFOO, China--My dear Brother Bell,       Yours, so full of assurance of sympathy and prayer, reached me last Sunday. I thank you most heartily for your letter. Several of the [Foreign Mission] Journal readers have already kindly written me, and perhaps others will do so.

BEIJING (BP)—Allyson Felix and other U.S. sprinters were unable to strike gold at the "Jamaican Olympics," as some in the media have dubbed the individual sprint titles ...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--Brooke Abel was 17 and competing on the junior national synchronized swimming team, but she wasn't having a good time.       "The junior team is really hard," Abel said. "You have to be away all summer long. You're away from your family and away from your friends. That was always a really hard time for me. When you're growing up and you're not around people who are influencing you in a good way, you're lost."       Fed up and frustrated, Abel planned to quit swimming. She didn't love it anymore.       But for some reason, the next year she went right back to the pool.       "The next year I showed up to the pool. I practiced, and I kept going," she said. "I still can't explain today why I kept going, but I think that was God. I'm so thankful that I kept going, and I can't even explain why I did."       Abel, now 20, is grateful -- because she will make her Olympics debut on Thursday on the U.S. synchronized swimming team. She's been dreaming specifically about the 2008 Olympics in Beijing since she was 12 or 13.       "It's kind of a relief," she said about making the team. "It's such an accomplishment. I didn't just do it for me, either. My family has sacrificed so much for me to get to where I am. I'm super happy to have the chance to get this far."       Often the whipping boy for hardcore sports fans, synchronized swimming is more difficult than many people realize.       "It pretty much feels like you're drowning for four minutes," Abel said.       Combining elements of acrobatics, swimming and dance-type movements, synchronized swimmers perform a routine of about four minutes in length.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--Trey Hardee, a U.S. decathlete competing in Beijing this week, grew up in a Christian home but strayed from the Lord as a teenager and during his college years at the University of Texas.

BEIJING (BP)–Tamika Catchings, a leading field goal shooter on the U.S. women’s basketball team, has been articulate about her faith playing a key role in her development as an athlete at the top of her game. When the United States beat South Korea 104-60 in the quarterfinals Aug. 19, Catchings scored six points on 3-of-3 […]

EDITOR’S NOTE: Each day during Baptist Press’ coverage of the Beijing Olympics, we are publishing a letter from a Southern Baptist missionary who served in China during the years before the People’s Republic of China was founded in 1949. Some of the letters reveal these missionaries’ great love for the people of China; others provide […]

BEIJING (BP)--The North American Mission Board's Jeff Wagner has attended Summer and Winter Olympics in the past, but his seventh, the Beijing Games, are beyond compare.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Each day during Baptist Press’ coverage of the Beijing Olympics, we are publishing a letter from a Southern Baptist missionary who served in China during the years before the People’s Republic of China was founded in 1949. Some of the letters reveal these missionaries’ great love for the people of China; others provide […]