According to Bishop Robert Barron, being awestruck by amazing athletes – such as Simone Biles at the Olympics -is a “religious” experience where people are bonded together in wonder of extraordinary grace.
When U.S. gymnast Simone Biles last returned home with another bag of gold medals, it struck a special nerve for Bishop Robert Barron expressed in an article he wrote for the Crossroads Cultural Center.
The Bishop recently compared Biles’ incredible athleticism to that of NBA icon Michael Jordan.
“It was amazing watching Simone Biles last night and her marvelous performance,” he told Fox News Digital. “And she is the GOAT. I mean, she’s the greatest of all time. And it reminded me of watching Michael Jordan when I was a younger guy, the greatest of all time, that there was just something qualitatively different about Jordan. You know, he was surrounded by great players, but then there was Jordan. He was something else. The same with Simone. She’s with the greatest gymnasts in the world, but when she performed, it was at this pitch of excellence, you know?”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHTaUGpsuoY
Barron alluded to a performance that brought her the spirit of ancient Greek olympism and celebrated excellence in sport for itself, because sporting beauty is above all this pursuit.
“I’m not watching Simone Biles to accomplish anything else,” he said. “I’m just contemplating how beautiful that performance is. And I’ll say, as a religious person, it’s one of the ways that value shows itself in the world. There is something kind of sacred about it.
“And I use the word contemplation. That’s what you do when you’re at a baseball game. If you love baseball or you’re watching the greatest of all time perform, you’re just contemplating the beauty of this performance. And there’s something mystical about that, something wonderful about it. And you see why the Olympics emerged long ago and why they still hold our attention today.”
Biles’ return comes after a difficult Olympics at the 2021 Tokyo Games, where she famously pulled out of the women’s all-around final due to what she later described as a case of “the twisties.”
Barron previously took up for what seemed to be the mocking of the Last Supper in Paris Olympics opening ceremonies, talking about how much that meant and offended Christians everywhere with an unflattering representation of it performed by drag queens.
