World Champ Shares Jesus On & Off the Speed Skating Track
Photos by Francis Faurot
Canadian National Team skaters Anders Johnson (left), an active member of Rocky Mountain Calvary Chapel (RMCC), and Marc-Andre Doyon engage in lighthearted rivalry during a warmup session. Anders’ team set a world record at Calgary’s 2024 World Championship, winning gold.
Canadian Anders Johnson and his teammates were in dead last position in the 2024 World Speed Skating Championships men’s team sprint event. A teammate had fallen at a qualifying meet the weekend before, putting them at a disadvantage. Anders, an elite athlete and Olympian in training, explained, “We were coming into the World Championship kind of at the bottom, and the Dutch team ahead of us skated a new world record—a record no one has even come close to since 2017.”
As Anders and his two teammates, Laurent Dubreuil and Antoine Gélinas-Beaulieu, approached the start line, Laurent urged that they would need to skate fast. “I just prayed, and the gun went off,” Anders said. “I felt like it was an out-of-body experience for me. Like [the apostle] Paul said, whether in the body or out of the body, I cannot tell. It was like the Holy Spirit just took control! I did my part, Laurent did his, and Tony finished off. It was a photo-finish, and we won.” Beaming, he added, “We got the world record and won the World Championship. It was just so very incredible!”
I know a man in Christ … —whether in the body I do not know, or whether out of the body I do not know, God knows—such a one was caught up to the third heaven. 2 Corinthians 12:2
An Early Call
Now a speed skating champion in Calgary, AB, Canada, Anders has been in ice skates since he was 3 years old as he attempted to follow in his grandfather’s career in the National Hockey League (NHL). “He passed away before I was born, so that dream of playing in the NHL, just like him, meant a lot to me and my family,” he disclosed.
In his high school senior year, Anders felt the Lord tugging at his heart to commit his life to Him. “I gave up my dream of being a hockey player and focused on school and the ministry where He was calling me.”
At his mom’s recommendation, he took up speed skating. “God opened doors all along the way,” assured Anders. “For the last two years, I’ve been on the national team for long-track speed skating, and I’ve been going to Rocky Mountain Calvary Chapel (RMCC).”
Anders gives an encouraging word to National Team speed skater, Cooper Emin (left), as they lace-up for practice.
One of Anders’s role models is [the late] Eric Liddell, Scottish Olympian runner and missionary to China. “Eric Liddell said when he ran, he felt God’s pleasure. I feel the same way when I am skating,” Anders stated. “In a high-performance setting, even on the global stage of the Olympics, he didn’t compromise his testimony and conviction for the Lord. The Lord was able to use him as a powerful witness. I pray that would be the same for me.”
An Effective Witness
Growing up in a Christian home, Anders admits the Lord was working in his heart early. “I was saved when I was 3 years old going to Sunday school,” he recounted. My grandma was the teacher. I didn’t want to go to hell; I wanted to be with Jesus for eternity.”
Homeschooled, Anders completed his education through Abeka Academy, an advanced, faith-based curriculum that develops students’ self-discipline, good study habits, and ability to defend their Christian faith.
These characteristics were the building blocks he depended on through his rigorous training and competition regimen while remaining active with RMCC’s School of Ministry on Sunday mornings and serving in worship, playing piano and guitar, with the young adult group on Wednesday nights.
Glen Nudd (left), pastor of RMCC, exhorts Anders to run with endurance the race that is set before him—both in his faith and his Olympic endeavors.
Anders pushes a fitness sled across the track. Although he trains six to eight hours a day, he remains actively involved at RMCC and uses his platform to share Christ.
“[The late] Eric Liddell said when he ran, he felt God’s pleasure. I feel the same way when I am skating.”
Desiring above all to be a strong witness and light for the Lord, Anders recently began working on a Christian apologetics degree through Liberty University. He elaborated, “I pray the Lord would use that education, as well as our School of Ministry, in preparing me to be an effective witness for Him, coupling that with the worship and athletic side of things—bringing it all together in a full package to reach people with the Gospel.”
As part of their training, skaters use a tension-producing elastic cable to strengthen their core and lower body and increase endurance.
Through his platform as a record-setting athlete and Olympic hopeful, Anders has been able to speak with younger athletes and other youth—promoting the Gospel of Christ. “My mom is a Christian school teacher in Vancouver. Last spring, I was able to do a chapel service for them. I shared my personal testimony and my story,” he stated.
Whether coaching with the Calgary Speed Skating Association, signing autographs at skating meets, speaking at public events or at church services, God has used Anders through a venue he was not seeking. “I’ve been able to encourage youth through a message of, ‘Don’t try to do it your way, but let God do it His way; let Him take the lead.’ ”
For it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure. Philippians 2:13
Reflecting God’s Light
In the mountain-top experience of a prestigious world championship victory, Anders acknowledged the spiritual forces at work in the Olympics.
“The previous opening ceremonies of the Olympics in Paris were used as a platform for Satan, basically,” he remarked. “There are very powerful and influential people in the world there that are being influenced by darkness. I know some Christian Olympians from Calgary that were in Olympic Village. They said it was such a dark place.”
Urging fellow believers—whether in their own church, country, globally, or circle of influence—to stand for truth and righteousness, he exhorted, “When the darkness gets darker, then the light needs to get brighter. We need to stand up and be bright lights, not ashamed of the Gospel.”
Anders (left) and Marc-Andre perform plyometic drills, such as the single-leg sprint jump, which increase leg strength, giving the skaters power, explosive coordination, and sprint speed.
Anders (center) and two members of Canada’s long track National Team perform speed drills at Calgary’s Olympic Oval, the site of the 1988 Winter Olympics.
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