She goes for it

Kelly Clark is 34 years old, twice as old as some of her snowboarding competition at the Olympics this week. 

photo: stream.org

She won her first gold medal at the 2002 games in Salt Lake City, but later struggled with depression. Then she heard someone comfort a different competitor with the good news that God loved her, and Kelly sought out this believer. “I think you might be a Christian,” she said, “and I think you need to tell me about God.” 

Clark thought that Christianity was about rules and being good all the time. “She just told me it was about relationship, not about religion. And she just told me Jesus loved me. It was just what I needed to hear.”

“I think what captured me was that God loved me. I didn’t have to do anything. I didn’t have to be someone. … There’s a love that’s bigger than all that.”

Her friend Natalie describes her: "Everything with Kelly is an adventure . . On one side, you have the athletic adventure. On the other side, you have the identity adventure . . She’s so brave, not only in the halfpipe, but even with figuring out who she is as a person, who she is in God, everything. She just goes for it.”