Vonetta Flowers Dreamed

VONETTA FLOWERS DREAMED of making the 2000 Summer Olympics team. But after two knee operations and ankle surgery, she discovered God had alternate Olympic plans.

Flowers, a former track star at the University of Alabama–Birmingham, took up bobsledding when she failed to land a spot on the U.S. track team. Just months prior to the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Games, Jill Bakken selected the 28-year-old athlete as her brakewoman for the two-woman bobsled event.

While Flowers may have made the team, nobody expected her to earn a medal. Experts rated the combo of Jean Racine and Gea Johnson as America’s best hope to overcome the Germans’ long domination of the sport.

The weekend prior to the race, Racine approached Flowers about switching teams. But the Alabama native refused, preferring to remain loyal and compete with her original partner.

Flowers positioned her team well on its first run, getting off a 5.31-second start. Bakken then guided their sled to a clocking of 48.81, which was .29 seconds faster than the German team of Sandra Prokoff and Ulrike Holzner.

On their second run, the underdog Americans bettered the Germans once again, posting a 48.95 compared to their rivals’ 48.96. With their combined time of 1::3776, Flowers and Bakken claimed the gold—and the first bobsled medal for the United States since 1956.

At the same time, Flowers became the first African-American athlete to capture a Winter Olympics gold.

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POINT Vonetta Flowers could have decided to change bobsled teams to gain a better chance at a medal. But she chose loyalty over victory and received her heart’s desire anyway. Shouts of joy greeted her as her country’s banner rose and the “Star-Spangled Banner” played.

The psalmist wrote a song that asked God to give us the desire of our heart and success in our plans. That’s what God wants for us, too, if our hearts beat with his. Then we will all shout in victory.

GOAL! What is your heart’s desire? Write down some plans you have for the future: