A 16-year-old skateboarder used her platform at the Paris Olympics on Sunday to push the message of Christianity.
Rayssa Leal, competing for Brazil in the women’s final, looked into a camera and signed the Bible verse John 14:6: “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’”
Leal, who is Catholic, ended up medaling, taking home the bronze. She told reporters after her performance, “Once again, thank God I won a medal. I’m very happy to be here.”
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🔥🚨BREAKING: Rayssa Leal, a Catholic skater won a Bronze Medal at the Paris World Olympics and she allegedly was told she wasn’t allowed to praise Jesus Christ.
Leal responded by saying ‘Jesus is the way, the truth and the life’ in sign language to protest.
This is very… pic.twitter.com/j5XJQ83AFD
— Dom Lucre | Breaker of Narratives (@dom_lucre) July 28, 2024
There is a ban at the Olympics on athletes using their platforms for expressions of faith, as noted by Catholic News Agency. Rule 50 of the International Olympic Committee says Olympic venues and podiums must be “neutral and free from any form of political, religious, or ethnic demonstrations.”
Leal’s messaging comes in stark contrast to the controversial opening ceremonies of the Paris Olympics, which made a mockery of the Last Supper, the final meal Jesus shared with his disciples.
As highlighted by The Daily Wire, the ceremonies featured a parody of The Last Supper with an obese woman wearing an aureole as Jesus surrounded by drag queens as the Apostles, a decapitated head representing Marie Antoinette of the French Revolution, and drag queens dancing around children.
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Wtf is going on at the Olympics opening ceremony? pic.twitter.com/rWIjH8ZVwP
— Harrison Faulkner (@Harry__Faulkner) July 26, 2024
Bishop Robert Barron, a popular Catholic cultural commentator, spoke out following the “gross mockery of the Last Supper.”
“So, we have a group of drag queens cavorting in a kind of sexually provocative way, clearly an imitation of Da Vinci’s Last Supper, which presents to the world the last supper of Jesus, and no disrespect was meant? You think anyone takes that seriously?” Barron said in a viral video.
Related: Bishop Robert Barron Rips Olympics’ ‘Condescending’ Apology For Blasphemous Last Supper Scene