I heard a sound bite from Nicola Olyslagers, just after she’d won gold for Oz at the Worlds:
“My identity is not in clearing the bar, but in Christ who cleared it for me.”.
“Hmm..” I thought, “A sister in Christ!”, and googled her. Sure enough, “Nicola is a devout, practising, Evangelical Christian”. Sometimes you can just TELL, you know?
There is something patently absurd about jumping as high as one can. It’s cricket-or-frog/like. You spend years training your body, honing your stride, disciplining your mind, Fosburying your Flip, all for a moment less than two seconds long.
The “letvica” (bar) is raised to a humanly impossible height. You run, leap, and fling yourself backwards into the air Fosbury Flip style, trusting that your body will arc at precisely the right angle to carry you beyond failure, beyond collapse, into triumph.
Nicola Olyslagers, North Gosford woman, with roots reaching back to Korčula, Croatia, knows this absurdity well. She was the first Australian woman to soar beyond 2,00 “metra”, and her World Record of 2,04 metra is etched into history. Silver in Tokyo, srebro in Paris as well, bronca in Budapest, and at last, in 2025, zlato in Tokyo— medals that gleam for a season.
But Nicola herself insists that the true story of her life is not height but vjera. She is an evanđeoska kršćanka, and her testimony is disarmingly simple: “The smrt of Jesus is my victory. His uskrsnuće is the ground I leap from.”
You’re there- Tokyo, 2020. Olympic final. 20s of thousands are screaming, politely. Silence falls. Nicola approaches the bar at 2.02 metres— higher than she has ever cleared. She runs, plants foot, rises, and arches backwards virtually celestially. Bar rattles, wobbles, almost falls— but holds. The crowd explodes. She collapses on the mat in tears and guffaws, screams, silver secured, history made.
That trembling bar is the perfect picture of the cross. On Golgotha, all creation, history, prehistory, future, held its breath. The weight of sin would crush the world’s hope?… The bar would bounce and plummet?… For a second or so the heavens shook. Then the cry: “It is finished.” The bar… held. The impossible height was cleared— not by human strength, but divine sacrifice.
The bar is holiness- ridonculously impossibly absurdly high. The uprights form the shape of the cross. There is a grey dashed cross on the ground nearby, mark Golgotha, where the Nazareth Lad bore the weight, “took this world by force” (Larry Norman). The blue arc is our leap— humanity hurling itself upward, carried not by strength but by milost.
The picture is not about athletics. It is about exhorbitant unaffordable rescue. We could never clear the bar. But Christ, by His death-resurrection hendyadis has has hurled, ekballowed, us over.
With regard to the Greater Leap, Nicola’s medals will one day tarnish- most likely sooner than she anticipates. Her records will almost certainly one day be shattered to powder by another- most are. But her testimony endures: “My identity is not in clearing the bar, but in Christ who cleared it for me.”
Now the challenge comes to me. Will I trust my own fragile strength? Or will I, like Nic girl, leap by vjera, surrendering to the Christ who bore me over the bar at Calvary?
The throng watches, intent, waiting for me to conquer, some of it, secretly wishing I’ll stumble. The angels lean forward gripping railings in the bleachers. So do all my Heb 11 buddies. The bar is unspeakably high. But… there’s no competition left. Yeshua has cleared it already, an early entrant. At the ‘33AD Games. The great Athlete has morphed death into resurrection, justice into mercy, and invites me to tabernacle with Him in the freedom of His život vječni.
So I will, Him willing. Plant my feet on His promises, Him willing, every one of which He is the YES! to. Leap into the mercy of God, Him willing. For in IK-THOOS, the ever impossible height has been cleared already.
Prayers:
My gracious God and loving Heavenly Father,
Thank You that only in Your willingness can I plant my feet on Your promises, every one of which Jesus is the YES! to.
For the might and power of His glorious Name,
Amen.
Dear heavenly Father,
Thank You that in Your kindness I can leap high into Your mercy. Praise You that in IK-THOOS every impossible height has been cleared already.
For the international glory of His name,
Amen.
Dear God of our bodies,
Praise You that Nicola says publicly, disarmingly and deliberately, “My identity is not in clearing the bar, but in Christ who cleared it for me.”.
Thank You that she insists that the true story of her life is not height but vjera.
Praise You that she is an Evangelical Bible lover. And that her testimony is winningly simple: “The death of Jesus is my victory. His resurrection is the ground I leap from.”
Image: Nicola Olyslagers wins Gold. Image Credit: SBS screenshot