Eli Bremer still remembers a flight he took when he was 4. He sat next to a stranger on the airplane who told him all about the Olympics. Completely fascinated, Eli decided he wanted to be an Olympian when he grew up.
More than 25 years later, Eli has qualified to be a 2008 Olympian in the modern pentathlon. Winning the gold medal at the 2007 Pan Am Games guaranteed him a spot on the Olympic team.
The modern pentathlon combines five very different skills into one competition: shooting, fencing, swimming, horseback riding and running. The event has its roots in military combat—the idea of an officer whose horse is brought down in enemy territory. He defends himself with pistol and sword, swims across a river and eventually delivers the message on foot.
Like that determined soldier, Eli has faced challenges and disappointments on the way to his Olympic dream. During trials for the 2004 Olympic games, his hopes of qualifying were shattered when he broke his foot and couldn’t compete. A year later, he nearly quit doing sports because of an injury.
“There’s a lot of really hard days where you don’t feel like you can do it,” Eli says. “It’s a long way from when I was 4 years old to now.”
Never Give Up
Now that he has finally reached his goal, Eli continues to give God the credit, knowing that his success is in God’s hands.
“I think it’s mostly keeping everything in perspective, knowing that I compete for His glory, not mine. At the end of the day, if I’m going to succeed, it’s going to be for Him. He shows me that it’s about more than me.”
Like all Olympians, Eli maintains an intense training schedule. On a single training day, Eli might swim four miles, fence for an hour, shoot for an hour, then run 10 miles.
Eli’s hard work and commitment, along with God’s faithfulness, have allowed him to finally reach his goal. The stranger on the airplane has no idea that the little boy he talked to many years ago is now an Olympian.
Read about Olympic soccer player Cat Whitehill.
