Have you heard about the trouble they’re having at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics?
A Wall Street Journal headline says it best: “The Olympics have just begun. Olympic medals are already falling apart.”
Apparently, the ribbons are not staying fastened to the medals, and several have fallen off. As of the writing of this blog, at least six Olympians have had their medals break—and some of those during the actual medal award ceremony!
Olympic organizers are said to be investigating with “maximum attention.” You don’t say.
But fragile rewards are hardly an isolated problem in the sports world.
Formula 1 driver Isack Hadjar accidentally broke his third-place trophy during celebrations at the 2025 Dutch Grand Prix. According to observers, he accidentally snapped the handmade Delft Blue trophy during team photos. Thankfully, the award was replaced.
Then there’s Vice President JD Vance, who ended the Ohio State football team’s visit to the White House by fumbling the team’s national championship trophy. He didn’t realize the trophy’s golden top was designed to separate from the base, and the Vice President ultimately lost his grip on both.
Back to that problem with the Olympic medals. Imagine investing years of drive, dedication, and discipline to get to the Olympics. Imagine the surge of adrenaline at winning—only to watch your medal jangle down to the floor. Isn’t that just about the ultimate disappointment?
Actually, it’s not. A far greater disappointment awaits believers who get so thoroughly sucked up into this world that they don’t “compete” for the rewards of the world to come. So, we end up in heaven with little or nothing to show for our time here on earth. No return on the talents Christ has loaned us.
Unlike those flimsy Olympic medals, heavenly rewards, we’re assured, are beyond breakage. Shouldn’t this truth sober us, motivate us? Like those Olympic organizers, it’s time you and I investigate our souls with “maximum attention.”
“Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. So they do it to obtain a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable.”
1 Corinthians 9:25
