There’s a hidden Christian message behind what will be the most celebrated image of the 2024 Olympics.
On July 29, in round three of the shortboard browsing competition, Brazil’s Gabriel Medina faced off against Japan’s Kanoa Igarashi, who eliminated Medina within the last Olympics. In his second wave, Medina emerged from a tube exuberant, with each palms open, suggesting that the judges should offer him a ten for his performance. (Two of the five judges agreed; his final rating was 9.9).
Medina then pivoted left, toward the surf, and jumped off his board, raising his right hand and pointing his index finger upward. This was the image that Agence France-Presse photographer Jérôme Brouillet captured.
Brazilian evangelicals recognized the sign immediately.
“It’s like he’s saying, ‘It’s not me you need to be taking a look at, it’s God. This moment of glory shouldn’t be mine, but his,’” said João Guilherme Züge, a resident historian of faith at Museu Paranaense, in Curitiba.
In contrast to the United States, where baseball players often point to the sky after hitting home runs for various reasons—some to precise gratitude to God, others to honor late family members—the gesture amongst Brazilian athletes has change into closely related to Christian players.
The raised finger, pointing to the sky, has been the trademark of Brazilian evangelical athletes for greater than 40 years, one in all quite a few public displays of religion following competitive glory which have helped to affirm and establish evangelical identity, especially when the movement was still in its infancy.
No one seems to recollect who initially created the gesture, however it gained popularity within the Nineties, primarily through soccer players, akin to Kaka, who raised their index fingers after on-field heroics, knowing that the camera could be trained on them after they scored a goal.
Despite its ubiquitousness, the spiritual intent of the message hasn’t necessarily made its way outside of evangelical circles. “[Medina] really has the fitting and authority to contemplate himself primary,” Renata Vasconcellos, an anchor with Jornal Nacional on TV Globo, Brazil’s most-watched news program, commented on air last week, giving the raised finger a really different interpretation.
But its low-key, almost generic nature has also helped to make it so popular. Like the World Cup and other international competitions, the Olympics forbids any “form of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda … in any Olympic sites, venues or other areas.”
These regulations have forced athletes searching for a platform to share their faith to achieve this discreetly, or to precise their gratitude to God in interviews or social media posts. For his part, Medina uploaded Brouillet’s photo accompanied by the text from Philippians 4:13: “I can do all this through him who gives me strength.”
Evangelical Brazilian athletes have been creative of their expressions of religion during this 12 months’s Olympics. Skateboarder bronze medalist Rayssa Leal and silver medalist Caio Bonfim used sign language to seek advice from Jesus.
Medina, after losing within the semifinals to Australian Jack Robinson, shared a black-and-white photo of himself captioned “Josué 1”—referring to the chapter of the Bible by which Joshua admonishes the Israelites to be “strong and courageous” a minimum of 4 times—accompanied by the song “Ousado Amor,” a Portuguese version of Cory Asbury’s “Reckless Love.” On August 7, he uploaded an image of himself outside the Louvre recreating his iconic photo, once more holding up his index finger.
Back within the Nineteen Eighties, when evangelicals represented only 6.5 percent of Brazil’s population, “God’s goalkeeper” João Leite and striker Baltazar began Atletas de Cristo, a ministry with the goal of mobilizing athletes to share the gospel world wide. From the start—and spontaneously, says Züge—the finger pointing to the sky in goal celebrations became a mark for the movement.
Atletas de Cristo equipped athletes to see themselves as an envoy for his or her faith and encouraged them to evangelise and share their testimonies wherever they went. (One fruit of this strategy: Brazilian goalkeeper Alisson Becker baptizing his Liverpool teammate Roberto Firmino in 2020.)
Atletas de Cristo was also enormously successful in raising Brazilian evangelicals’ self-esteem. A key moment got here through the Brazil-Italy final within the 1994 FIFA World Cup. When neither team scored during regulation or time beyond regulation, the sport went to a shootout. Brazil won on the ultimate kick.
“The biggest image of that World Cup was when Italian star player Roberto Baggio missed his kick and Brazilian goalkeeper Taffarel, who had saved a previous shot, fell to his knees in prayer, pointing to the sky,” said Züge.
Image: Getty / Edits by CT
Brazilian goalkeeper Taffarel (right) celebrates after Roberto Baggio of Italy (left) misses his kick on the FIFA World Cup.
Such testimonies had an impact on Brazilian evangelicals.
“When Christians were watching the player make an attractive move, rating a goal in a crucial match after which have a good time together with his finger pointing to the sky, they felt represented,” said Reinaldo Olécio Aguiar, sociologist and pastor of the Primeira Igreja Presbiteriana Unida de Vitória. “Even knowing they were a part of a minority [at that time], they might see themselves as victorious.”
Taffarel had likely received some instruction on how you can use this achievement of athletic triumph as a missional moment.
“From the beginning, Atletas de Cristo knew how you can use the media,” said Züge. “Athletes were trained in how you can give a sworn statement in 30 seconds and to make the most of a live TV interview.”
This moment also modified how evangelical athletes were perceived by their fellow teammates.
“Before that, everybody mocked us,” said Anselmo Reichardt Alves, a former player who became a pastor and Brazilian team chaplain. “They used to say that we were babies, because we didn’t drink with them. Our masculinity was also questioned because we didn’t date several women at the identical time.”
Watching superstars express their faith openly also inspired evangelicals who faced criticism for attempting to live out their very own faith and eschewing popular traditions like Carnival.
“Our actions were like a mirror to other Christians; by watching the games in addition they learned to display their faith fearlessly,” said Züge. “People became more open to speak about God. If the players can do it, why not me?”
This boldness also can have inspired contemporary athletes to be daring of their faith.
“Sportspeople thanking God for his or her wins is nothing latest, however the sheer number doing so at this Olympics is noteworthy—especially so in France, which has insisted by itself athletes upholding the country’s secularist laws,” wroteThe Guardian commentator Emma John.
Atletas de Cristo has received criticism at times for encouraging victorious athletes to share their faith in ways in which can insinuate that their achievements are a result of getting more faith than others. Some have noted that they might are inclined to overlook the stories of losers, a lot of whom also often have personal relationships with God.
“What would I say when there are faithful Christians on either side?” said Aguiar.
This was the case on the Paris Olympics during a bronze-medal match in 52-kilogram women’s judo between Brazil’s Larissa Pimenta and Italy’s Odette Giuffrida. (CT highlighted their story in its coverage of Olympic highlights.)
After Pimenta won the fight and clinched the bronze, she stayed on the mat crying. Giuffrida approached and hugged her. “Get up,” she said to Pimenta, as each athletes recounted later.“All honor and all glory you’ve got to provide to him.”
Giuffrida later shared on social media that she remembered the night Pimenta first took her to a church service after they began training together. “From that day on, our lives have modified. And today, here we’re, no matter what happened on that tatami, no matter victory or defeat, thanking him in an Olympic final, in front of the world, for all the things,” she wrote.
“And that’s the fantastic thing about it. I can feel sincere, I can feel myself with Him by my side.”
