Olympic hopeful trained by Irish missionary

(Vatican Radio) Thursday is expected to be Heathrow airport's busiest day ever as thousands of spectators arrive for the XXX Olympic Games. Thousands of athletes are already in London. One of the favourites for gold in the men’s 800 meters in athletics is David Rudisha, who is coached by a Catholic religious brother, Brother Colm O'Connell.

Brother O’Connell has lived in the Kenya Highlands for more than 35 years, and has trained many top level athletes in schools run by the Brothers of Saint Patrick.

He spoke to Vatican Radio about why he sees athletics as a tool of evangelization.

“I had a sports background, but only in general. I did not have an athletic background…at that time Kenya was still a relatively new country, and there was a lot of work being done in trying to promote … education,” he said. “I got involved in education, and I also considered that sports would be an important part of the life of a young person, so I also used my interest, and my ability, to try to help young people to become good in sports.”

He said he sees his work as a missionary activity.

“Being a Catholic, very often our approach to development and to our own missionary work is not just about an academic education only,” Brother O'Connell explained. “It is about character formation. It is about values in life. It is about behaviour, and giving young people a good foundation. It is a little bit unusual for a missionary to see athletics or sports a missionary endeavour, but I think sports or any of these activities that go on outside the classroom, can even be more effective sometimes than the academic work.”

Listen to the interview by Davide Maggiore with Brother O'Connell: