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Canadian Olympic Gold Medallist: Earthly Gold Nothing to Heavenly Crown

By Hilary White
 
TURIN, February 23, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - After winning gold and silver medals at the Turin Olympics, Canadian long-track speed skater, Cindy Klassen says she owes everything to God.
 
"I've won a medal," she told reporters, "but that's nothing compared to the crown I'll get in Heaven. I see a lot of people in sports who think when they reach a certain level they've got it made, but really, you can only find happiness in the Lord."
 
Cindy Klassen, a Winnipeg native and devout Mennonite, has won more medals at these Olympics than any Canadian woman at any single Olympic games.
 
Klassen says, "I want to use the publicity I've gotten through my success for His glory. I go back to my old high school and talk to the students. I . . . let people know I'm a Christian."
 
An all-round sportswoman, Cindy has been playing Canada's most popular sport since she was old enough to hold a hockey stick. She began speed skating at 18, was a member of the National Women's Lacrosse Team at the 1994 Commonwealth Games and a member of the Women's National Junior Hockey Team. Her first Olympic medals were two bronze wins at the 2002 winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.
 
Her connection to the Christian community is strong and has helped her in her sporting efforts. At Salt Lake City, she says she was nearly overcome with nervousness, when she received an email from students at Mennonite Brethren Collegiate Institute from which she graduated in 1997, "packed with notes of encouragement, telling me they were cheering (and) praying for me."
 
"And that's when it hit me," Cindy said. "This is just another race. [God] knows the outcome. All I can do is use what He's given me. All I can do is do the best I can. So, that's what I did."
 
Her parents encouraged her to start speed skating, Cindy's only objection to which were the "skin-tight" spandex outfits designed to minimize wind drag. For the better part of my first year in speed skating, I went against the grain, and wore very baggy clothes," Klassen laughs.
 
Outside her sporting endeavours, Cindy loves classic literature, good music, great art, and travel, but they all take a back seat to her faith in Christ. When she failed to make the Canadian Olympic team on her first try in 1998, she left her future in the hands of God.
 
"This was his plan all along. I learned by getting cut." As a believer in Jesus Christ, she adds, "even when you want things . . . if it's not in God's will, it's not going to happen. I've learned to go along with that.
 
"Right now in speed skating I'm having the time of my life, but I have to be ready to move on if He wants me to do something else."
 
Visit Cindy's Olympic website:
http://www.olympic.ca/EN/hopefuls/c_klassen.html

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