After a year when many sports were canceled in 2020, the world was especially excited for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, which actually took place in 2021 due to quarantine. After a year with so many difficulties, people were eager to cheer on their countries’ athletes—and hopeful they’d bring home the medals! Many of you might have watched some of the events and cheered on Team U.S.A.
Even when it’s not a year for the Olympics, many Americans are passionate for sports. This is shown through obsessions with fantasy drafts, statistics, and season predictions.
- Are you and your family big sports fans? What sports and teams are your favorite? (Accept all reasonable responses.)
- Looking back on the past, what have been the greatest teams of all time, and what dynamics made them so successful? (Allow students to speculate.)
With so many incredible athletes emerging in the last fifty years, you’d probably imagine that your team made up of all-stars would have every play looking something like these incredible moments from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Play the following video for your students [5:26; start at 2:48; stop at 4:59]:
Relive the very best of Team USA at the 2020 Olympic Games | Tokyo Olympics | NBC Sports
The athleticism displayed in these clips is truly inspiring; however, across all of the players and teams we have discussed so far, there has yet to be anyone who’s never experienced defeat. Even with the most perfect players in history assembled onto one team, it’s still impossible to guarantee victory. In fact, there is only one way for us to ensure that we’ll always be on the winning team. In today’s lesson, we’ll look at God’s power to overcome any amount of evil and learn that when we side with Him, we’ll always win.