Go for the Goal – Ken DeLong

The 2014 Olympic winter Games open in Sochi, Russia on February 7, 2014.  Exactly one month later, following the 17 days of initial competition, the 2014 Paralympic Winter Games open for 10 days.  What better time to use Mainstay’s Go for the Goal sermon series.  As support material for our Go for the Goal series, we continue our series of stories that spotlight Winter Olympians whose goal is to honor Jesus Christ.

Ken DeLong’s story may be the most unusual in our series, but it may also be the most representative of Going for the Goal.  Ken grew up in Roanoke, Virginia with aspirations of being an Olympic athlete.  He never made it to the Olympics.  But he is about to.

After high school, Ken went to Milligan College, a highly-rated Christian liberal arts school in Tennessee where he earned his bachelor’s degree in health and physical education.  He obtained his graduate degree while working as a strength and conditioning coach at Texas A&M.  Subsequently, he ended up accepting a strength and conditioning internship at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Lake Placid, NY.  While there, he became the fourth man for one of the U.S. bobsled teams.  He recalls that “It was a fantastic experience – a little scary, but really exciting.”  Unfortunately for the 26-year old Ken, his team placed seventh in the Olympic trials and that appeared to be the end of the story.

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