When U.S. figure skater Mirai Nagasu took the ice in the women’s short program on Tuesday night, the cameras moved to capture her parents. This is normal for figure skaters.

So, according to my oldest son, is the story that follows.

Nagasu’s parents, who run a small family restaurant in Southern California, had their tickets paid for to the Olympics by Panasonic. The Nagasus would not have made it otherwise. Their income was too limited, their circumstances too difficult. Mrs. Nagasu, you see, has thyroid cancer. And while Mom’s prognosis is reported as “good,” the treatments she began last fall and will continue after the Olympics add a certain weight to Mirai’s competitive efforts.

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Shaun White--snowboarder extraordinaire, Olympic gold medalist, global superstar--is as cool and hip as they come. Some would say he's the face of the Winter Games. I would say he's the poster boy for integrity. Here's why.

I have a friend who uses what he calls the "Three-Way Integrity Test" as a way to measure whether or not he is doing something with integrity. When presented with an opportunity or an invitation to join in some kind of activity, he asks himself three questions:

1. Is it legal?

2. Is it fair to all parties involved?

3. Would I be okay if a photo of my activity showed up in the newspaper or on the Internet the next morning?

After winning his gold medal in spectacular fashion in the half-pipe, Shaun White, who is already incredibly rich and famous, appeared at a press conference with Scott Lago, another American snowboarder who took the bronze in the same event. According to Los Angeles Times sportswriter Bill Plaschke, who was at the press conference, Shaun was asked what he was going to do next, whereupon he turned to Lago and said, "What do you want to do next, man?"

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“I’ve given up everything for this.  It means everything to me. It’s why I work hard.  I got what I came here to do.  I got a gold medal; I have what I want.”

Tears have a funny way of releasing things.  Lindsey Vonn’s tears were no different.  As she stood at the bottom of the mountain at Whistler, Olympic Gold as her prize, the Women’s Downhill Champion’s tears shone brightly in the sun.

She must have been thinking of all the years she spent training for this moment.  She must have been thinking of all the expectations that were placed on her shoulders as the favorite for these Games.  She must have been thinking of the pressure that mounted as she sustained a shin injury just two weeks before the Games began.

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The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong…but time and chance happen to them all. (Ecclesiastes 9:11, NIV)

Don’t know if you’ve read Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers, but let me say this about it: it may be the single greatest argument ever for the sovereignty of God. If you want a shortcut to what I mean, just read the last chapter, where Gladwell describes his own life experience. He’s not a God guy that I can tell, so he attributes things to right-place-at-the-right-time explanations, but layer in what you know about the God of Scripture, and you’ll be blown away (unless you spend lots of time thinking about this stuff already).

Or you can do this: Start watching the Winter Olympics.

If these Olympics are teaching me anything, it’s that the best you can do is give yourself a chance. The rest is, as some still dare to say, “up to God.”

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It is that time again when everyone starts humming NBC's Olympic anthem in their heads (daaa daaa, da da da da da -- that's how the composer writes it, I'm sure).  As I am still shaking the remnants of this cold, I was reminded of a recent blog entry I wrote about competition and the Olympics.  So I wanted to post a link to that blog entry for this week: (click title to be directed there) Why I am not a US Soccer Fan.  Happy Reading and I will be back with a new series on Self-Care very soon!

I'm intrigued by the wondering out there this week as to whether it’s kosher for athletes to praise God when they’re interviewed after a victory. Kosher may not be the right word, for literally that would mean it is acceptable to religious people—or at least a specific portion of them. And the question at hand seems to be whether it is acceptable to the non-religious people who have to hear all this “glory-to-Godding.”

So let’s think about this for a few minutes.

One of the key criticisms of athletes who thank or praise God for a victory goes like this: “Well, of course they’re praising God. They won.” It’s not a criticism that’s too verifiable because, well, normally postgame reporters only interview the winners.

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