PARIS – As athletes intensify training and organizers finalize preparations for the Paris Olympics, more than 120 religious leaders are gearing up for a new challenge: providing spiritual support to some 10,000 Olympians around the world, especially those whose medal dreams have been dashed.
“We need to bring them back to reality, because after four or five years of working toward this goal, it can feel like the end of the world,” said Jason Nioka, a former judo champion and deacon who leads the largest group of Olympic chaplains, about 40 Catholic priests, nuns and laypeople.
Clerics and lay representatives of the world’s five major religions – Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam and Judaism – have been working together for months to build a common hall at the Olympic Village outside Paris.
There they will worship, pray and, most importantly, demonstrate an open listening ear to players and staff in need, regardless of faith.
“We’re not here to get the players to win,” said Anne Schweitzer, who oversees the second-largest group of about 30 Protestant pastors. “My goal is to raise up Christian witnesses who embody the love and care of Christ for the players who are under immense pressure.”
Olympic chaplains have a history of being in high demand: Organizers said they received more than 8,000 requests during the pre-pandemic Olympics to deal with a range of situations, from mental health issues and pre-competition blessings to dealing with the death of a family member back home.
But this year the chaplains are training for more complex challenges, including complying with France’s secularism laws that strictly regulate the role of religion in the public sphere, and preparing for the ripple effects of the Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Hamas wars, especially at a time of heightened athlete activism.
“I see our mission as one of protecting their vulnerability,” said Archpriest Anton Gelyasov of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of France. “Secondly, to bear witness that we exist not only as ‘my Church’ but as ‘religion’ and that our being together is good.”
Indeed, the behind-the-scenes negotiations to accommodate the different faiths, and the different cultural, national and liturgical traditions within each faith, reveal a teamwork worthy of the podium by the all-volunteer pastoral corps.
Each religion will be allocated 538 square feet of tent-like structures that Paris organisers are building and furnishing in the village, with the basic task of welcoming athletes and providing information about worship services.
And Jewish and Muslim leaders decided to set up their spaces next to each other as an “image and example” that they can coexist even in times of heightened geopolitical tensions, said Rabbi Moshe Lewin. Buddhists provide statues and cushions for meditation, but strive for a balance between the extreme simplicity of the Zen tradition and the vibrant colors of the Tibetan tradition, said Luc Charles, a Zen monk, taekwondo instructor and head hospital chaplain for the French Buddhist Union.
Most of these rich traditions will be hidden from view — a deliberate move in a country where most signs of faith are banned from public institutions. The hall itself will not be located in the center of the village, and signs to it will be discreet so as not to disturb non-believers, said Jeanne Le Comte du Colombier, project manager for the interfaith center at the Paris Olympic Committee.
While the Olympics are not a place for proselytizing, some religious leaders said they wish there could be more outreach in the athletes’ village, especially for athletes from countries without religious freedom who might be hesitant to come to the venue for counseling or blessings.
Religious leaders have organized a network of mosques and parishes outside the Olympic Village and in other French cities hosting the games, including Marseille and Lyon, that will have special opening hours for athletes and offer multilingual services, but with less stringent security than inside the village.
The French Catholic Bishops’ Conference has launched a nationwide “Holy Games” initiative. Since last September, it has been installing a “Maiden of Athletes” chapel in La Madeleine, an iconic church in central Paris, where believers can light candles with inspirational quotes about sports and enter prayer requests on a tablet that links directly to the monastic community.
The Holy Games also works to include disadvantaged communities such as homeless people and immigrants in the Olympic festivities, but this risks further marginalizing them, said Isabelle de Chatelles, the project’s director.
Some teams are also being asked to bring in their own chaplains, but religious leaders have said players might prefer to go to a parsonage for sensitive issues.
They are, for example, working to ensure there are equal numbers of male and female chaplains and preparing to hear possible cases of abuse within player teams. And while most denominations offer some form of peace prayer and vow to welcome players who offer prayer, they are also bracing for the possibility of escalating hostilities between countries at war.
“The geopolitical situation will have an impact on athletes, but the Olympics offer a wonderful opportunity to meet others,” said Lewin, a Jewish chaplain who is special adviser to the chief rabbi of France, vice president of the Council of European Rabbis and a member of the European Parliament.
“We have worship, not politics,” Benali agreed. “We explain that we listen to the players and we are with them. We are not the right people to deal with geopolitical issues.”
Part of that spiritual accompaniment stems from how each sect defines health, the human body, and the role of sport. Many religious texts describe the body as a temple of the spirit, making caring for one’s health a moral imperative.
Many see similarities between church pews and bleachers in spiritual values such as dedication, perseverance and self-sacrifice.
“Sports gives us values to live with faith rooted in Christ,” said the 28-year-old Futaoka, who will be ordained a priest a month before the opening ceremony.
Athletes may especially benefit from this before races, given the Orthodox Christian tradition’s emphasis on the daily battle against sin, what Gelyasov calls “spiritual warfare.”
“If you’re not moving forward, you’re moving backwards. You have to keep moving forward,” he explained.
After the race, rather than focusing on the pressure to deliver, in Charles’ words, “an almost superhuman performance,” perhaps Buddhist meditation can help clear the mind.
“We have been given this body and this life, but the final decision is made by a higher energy,” the Zen monk said.
