Christian Taylor, the world champion in the men's triple jump, won gold in the Rio Olympics 2012, and gave all the glory to God.
He told Passion for Sport that his life was "absolutely" based on faith, adding that "this is what I do it for."
He said his grandmother encouraged him to always thank God.
"My grandmother got a cell phone for Christmas and she texts me inspirational verses. She always says give God the glory and that's what I do."
"As a human, you get excited and say 'Yeah, look what I did!' And my grandma always finds a way to put in that little message, like 'No, don't forget', and for me that's what keeps me grounded."
Taylor took home gold after his 17.86 meters triple jump, beating his American teammate Will Claye who scored his personal best at 17.76 meters and won silver. China's Bin Dong came in third with a score of 17.58 meters.
When Taylor had qualified for the Rio Olympics final, he shared a message about the power of prayer on Twitter:
"The power of prayer is unbelievable! Thank you for all your well wishes and support. I truly felt it," he tweeted.
Taylor also won gold medal in the triple jump at the 2012 Olympics in London.
He loves triple-jumping even when years of pursuing this sport wore out his knee joints, and he faced the pressure of quitting about two years ago but he hung on, and switched the right leg for left one to make the take-off jump.
"People around me would say, 'You've won so many things, can you not continue through the pain?' but it was to the point that it was either that I try and blow out my knee or I just give it up," he told CNN in a 2014 interview.
But, his passion kept him going.
"I love this too much -- my passion for it exceeded the doubt -- and once I just committed to it, I was like this is it. I'm going to make it happen."
Despite the disadvantage of having to switch his primary style of using left leg for take-off, he again gave glory to God for enabling him to carry on. He wrote on twitter: "I can do all things through HIM, and HE has blessed me in so many ways."
The power of prayer is unbelievable! Thank you for all your well wishes and support. I truly felt it. #Rio2016 #triplejump #blessed
"” Christian Taylor (@Taylored2jump) August 15, 2016
