Olympian shoulders: Biblical lessons strengthen competing teams, athletes
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Rev. Carey Casey didn't take home any medals as a chaplain at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea. But his work at the games did reinforce what he already knew to be true: Be yourself and be available to God.
Twenty years ago Casey was standing on an Athletes Village balcony overlooking the Seoul evening sky. At his side was 25-year-old Carol Lewis on the night before her Olympic long-jump competition. When the rest of the world would have expected Lewis to be asleep, she was restless.
She missed her father, who had died shortly before the Olympics.
"I think it was (her father's) birthday that night when we were on that balcony, and she was just sitting there, talking about her dad," said Casey, now CEO of the Shawnee, Kan.-based National Center for Fathering.
Carol's brother, Olympic legend Carl Lewis, joined them on the balcony later to reminisce.
"Here are a sister and a brother in the Olympic Village. Greatest athletes in the world, but they're missing their dad," Casey said.
The experience is still vivid 20 years later.
He remembers being approached by U.S. women's basketball coach Kay Yow before the team's gold medal game against Yugoslavia to address a problem: dissension among older players on the team about playing time.
The younger, faster players were getting the limelight while the veterans sat on the bench as reserves. The team needed motivation to push through the medal round.
Carey knew the right message.
He spoke to the team about Matthew 25, Jesus' parable of the talents. In the story, the master gave three servants different amounts of money, each according to their abilities, to keep while he was away. Two servants invested the money; the third put his talent in a hole in the ground. The two who invested were praised, while the other servant was punished.
"I said the issue is not how many talents they had," Casey said. "The issue was the head coach knew how much (playing time) each one of them needed, and she gave to them each according to their abilities ...
"The master was upset with (the servant given one talent) because he did not do his best with it, and I shared that that night.
"Don't get caught up in who's going to get the glory," he said to the team. "Do the best with what you have. Invest it in tomorrow."
