VANCOUVER (BP)–Listening to the music of Christian music artist Misty Edwards as she competed in the finals, U.S. snowboarder Kelly Clark won a bronze medal in the women’s halfpipe event Feb. 18 in Vancouver.
“It was a tough final,” Clark said. “I couldn’t be happier.”
Clark recounted that “a lot of us went down after the first run and that put the pressure on for the second run,” in which she posted a score of 42.2, just behind her U.S. teammate, Hannah Teter, who posted a 42.4 score. Australia’s Torah Bright won the gold with a score of 45.
Clark won gold in the halfpipe in the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City and finished fourth in 2006 in Turin.
Earlier in the day, U.S. speedskater Rebekah Bradford finished 29th in the women’s 1000 meters with a time of 1:18.778, a mark with which she was disappointed.
“Thank you for your prayers and support,” Bradford wrote on Twitter. “Not too happy with my performance, but now is family time. God bless!”
Also on Thursday, British skeleton racer Adam Pengilly completed the first two runs in his competition, with the final two heats coming the night of Feb. 19. Pengilly was in 20th place after the first two heats.
Pengilly says he goes about his work as any Christian should: working for the Lord.
“Working hard at it, but keeping it in perspective of trying to do it for Him, which can be difficult when you’re enveloped in a 24/7 environment of sport,” Pengilly said. “Your life can become quite blinkered around that if you’re not careful. There’s also the danger that it can become an idol as well.
“Bearing those things in mind, I try to work as hard as I can at skeleton, keeping it in the right perspective of trying to do it for God and not for me.”
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Tim Ellsworth, director of news and media relations at Union University in Jackson, Tenn., is covering the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver for Baptist Press. For additional BP stories from the Winter Olympics, go to http://www.bpnews.net/BPCollectionNews.asp?ID=166. For Tim Ellsworth’s blog from Vancouver, go to http://www.bpnews.net/blog/.
