Video Transcription

So hey, my name is Nicola Olyslagers and I'm from Sydney, Australia and I'm so excited right now to be in Eugene, Oregon for the World Athletics Championships. So for a bit of background, I'm the current silver medalist from the Tokyo Olympic Games in high jump and it's been a passion of mine to be reaching the highest highs since I was eight years old. But when I first arrived in Eugene in 2014, this dream of mine to be the best athlete in the world came at the expense of everything else. I just wanted to be the best no matter what. And I trained every day and I focused on it to the point where that was number one. But when I recognised that, I'd positioned myself in that life from 2015 to 2016, that I wasn't satisfied. I remember being here last time and wanting to be a world championship for the under 20s in the world, but I felt like no matter how high I jumped, it was never enough. I wanted to be the gold medalist, but it seems that that ambition and that hope wasn't driving me forward. It was a lot of hard work and sometimes I'd get rewarded with a personal record, but most of the times it was disappointing.

So the big flick in my switch was at the end of 2016 to the start of 2017, I had a moment. And a moment where I had a crossroads of discovering would I decide to continue on this path of pursuing track and field as number one and to the expense of my relationships, my career and my life? Or is there a different path? And I'd been introduced to the Christian faith, when I was in high school. And I remember reading the Bible and feeling so loved and feeling so inspired and empowered by the words of Jesus. But I hadn't chosen that to be my number one. And in that moment, at the start of 2017, in that crossroad, I decided to seek God. And there's this verse in the Bible of Matthew chapter six, verse 33.

And it says, if you seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, all else will fail you. But if you seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, all else will fail you. but if you seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, all else will fail you. But if you seek first the kingdom When I decided to seek God first, I saw everything just change, in that moment. My performances were just going up and up and up effortlessly. Because when I trained, I no longer trained for the reason of why I was living or I didn't train to be famous or to be recognized or valued. When I knew that I was training because I was already valued, I was already precious and loved in God's words.

And I don't stop there. I used to be so Augenbraun in in person, but I started trying to join the Acts team because my health it sight but i wanted everyone around me to know that and to know their true identity in god when things were going well for me i recognized that with god you go from glory to glory you never stop at where you're at so i kept going when i had bad competitions i recognized that god is the restorer he can make things that were so small and turn them into things that are magnificent and majestic and so i just continued on this path so now to be back in eugene at 2022 with this overflowing hope inside of me i know that what god will do through me regardless of what i place is going to be monumental because i'm doing it for him and i'm doing it out of the love that overflows.