London 2012: Olympic legacies and great aspirations

(Vatican Radio) - When Ethiopian long distance runner Meseret Defar crossed the finish line for Olympic Gold, the very first thing she did was reach for an image of the Virgin and Child - which she had carried with her for every step of her 5,000 metre race - and pray, full of thanks and filled with joy.

When Irish Female Boxer, 26 year-old Katie Taylor, was announced the first ever Olympic Gold medallist in her category, her first words of thanks were for God and Jesus.

Meseret, an Orthodox Christian, and Taylor, a Pentecostal Christian, are just two examples of what has become an unspoken phenomenon in these Olympic Games. The quite, understated public display of faith by the athletes of the world at London 2012. From simple crucifixes to prostrations in prayer, athletes from various religious backgrounds have brought their private, personal relationship with God into the global arena, in moving moments of thanks and praise.

“It is a sign perhaps for many of us in society, that little public signs of faith are no harm”, says Bishop Richard Moth, Bishop of the British Armed Forces. “It’s a sign that faith is not just a personal thing, but in a very simple way they are opportunities for us to proclaim the Gospel, to proclaim faith and all those things can only be good!”.

As the Olympic Games winds down Emer McCarthy spoke to Bishop Moth about the past two weeks in London, a very different city to the one immortalised on our TV screens 12 months ago during violent urban riots.

Asked about the Legacy of the London Olympics, Bishop Moth says he hopes it will go beyond the ‘bricks and mortar’ of East London’s re-development, ‘wonderful as it is’. He expresses the hope that the great sense of community that the Games and the Queen’s Jubilee have inspired will permeate London society at a deeper level.

And above all he has words of praise for the athletes whose ‘dedication and sense of sacrifice’ have finally presented young people in Britain today healthier role models, an alternative to a dominant and sometimes degrading celebrity culture. They have shown us - he says - that there is always “something greater to aspire to”. Listen: