OLYMPICS
Cat Reddick: Aiming for Eternity
By
Shawn Brown, Andrew Knox and Barbara Cornick
The 700 Club
CBN.com
– Cat Reddick was the hero of team USA at the 2003 Women's World
Cup soccer finals. She replaced superstar Brandi Chastain, who broke her foot.
Cat went on to score twice and assist on a game-winning goal.
“I went in the game and I never came out and it was totally the Lord
that, that happened,” says Cat. “When I came into the World Cup,
I expected to play a little bit, but not nearly as much as I played, and I'm
so grateful that He allowed me that opportunity.”
Now Cat has another chance to shine; she's made the U.S. Women's Olympic
team!
“This team looks great. Playing day in and day out like this, the chemistry
is coming together,” says Cat. “Every day we come in and we just
want to prepare for the Olympics. I think everybody has that same focus.”
Preparing for the Olympics is exhausting. The team practices six to seven
days a week, sometimes up to eight hours a day, and they practice hard.
“Physically, mentally, spiritually it wears on you, but if you have
the right perspective, then you can make it through,” says Cat.
And Cat does have the right perspective -- one that's grounded in her faith
in God.
“When you have a good foundation with the Lord, you really see things
in a different perspective. You aim for the gold medal in the soccer aspect
of it, but you aim to worship the Lord every day you go out on that field,” says
Cat.
There is a lot of pressure on Cat and the team to bring home the gold, and
she wants that medal just as much as her teammates do, yet God helps her see
this prize in a different light -- an eternal one.
“The gold medal would be nice, and it's a nice thing to end this whole
long training process with, but I think in the long run that gold medal is
going to be sitting up on a [shelf] somewhere collecting some dust,”
says Cat. “One day in eternity I'll forget all about it. My focus is
first on God, and then on family, and then on friends, and then on soccer.”
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