One day, an athlete of mine asked, “have you ever noticed how there are so many high level CrossFitters that profess their religion on their Instagram profiles?” I must admit, I’ve never taken notice. But then I started seeing it everywhere across all sports. Rich Froning is very well known to prioritize his faith over his devotion to CrossFit as he dominated the sport many years. The list of pious persons of faith as high performers in other sports are endless. Tim Tebow, for instance, is well known for his evangelical beliefs and openly displayed it on the pitch. Muhammad Ali’s storied boxing career is often defined by his adherence to the messages of Islam. Similarly, one of the most dominant MMA world champions, Khabib Nurmagomedov, gives praise to Allah for all of his victories and puts his faith above his sport. If you are a fan of high level Olympic weightlifting, I’m sure you can easily name a handful of competitors who gave praise to their God upon performing some amazing feats of strength on the World Championship or Olympic Stage. One of the most iconic images that stands out for me is when Hossein Rezazedeh prostrated before God with his World Record clean and jerk to take gold at the 2004 Athens Olympics.

The social scientist in me then kicked into high gear. Indeed, I needed to know if the proliferation of this phenomenon shows some correlation between religiosity, faith, or belief and athletic performance outcomes. Is it truly divine intervention that leads individuals to the apex of their sport? While there is no way that I can prove that to you, what I can tell you is that from a sociological and psychological perspective, faith and belief play an incredibly powerful role in shaping athlete’s identities and motivations, and it’s those things that have been proven to be positively correlated with high performance. My main thesis? All things being equal, i.e., once we control for physical attributes, including skill level, injury, fitness, and etc. (the quantifiable metrics), the competitor with the more powerful belief framework (less quantifiable metrics) will take the advantage. Perhaps many of you already know this, but for those of you who are looking for that additional edge, even if you are not a person of faith, read on.

First, let’s delve into the existing research to establish the relationship, and then we can think through some practical application strategies.

We know that one of the most important roles that religion and faith play in human society is building a sense of community, identity, and belonging for the individual. For many humans, it gives them a sense of purpose and meaning to their lives, and allows them to feel as if they are a part of something bigger than themselves, and as much as it is about belonging to a community of alike others, this process of socialization also constitutes what it means to be an individual. Why this is important is because this common framework of belief gives individuals and communities the ability to control for uncertainty and build resilience in times of trauma and adversity. If that sounds familiar, it’s because those are traits you happen to need in order to perform well in any sport.

Now we can delve into some of the sport specific research on the correlation between faith and performance. Watson and Czech find that religious rituals, such as prayer, in sport, play a significant role for athletes “coping with uncertainties and the concomitant anxiety, putting life and sport into perspective, and providing meaning to sports participation and competition” (2005, 29). Czech and Bullet (2007) find that Christian collegiate athletes place an incredibly high value on pre-game prayer and its effect on their performance. In another study on collegiate athletes, Schroeder and Scribner (2006) find that a faith-based framework facilitates a common culture among the sports team and staff and helps integration of all team members through the internalization of consistent and common values. Look no further than Tom Brady’s attempts to turn teambuilding among the New England Patriots into a spiritual quest with football itself as the religion.

It makes sense when you think about it right? If it’s your belief, that an omnipotent being placed you on this earth with the sole purpose of dominating in a physical endeavor, then what can possibly shake your confidence and belief in your own abilities? If you believe that you and your fellow teammates were divinely anointed for this purpose, then you can handle any trials and tribulations that come your way to prove yourselves in the eyes of your almighty. 

Now the question is, “do I need to have a specific religious belief framework to reap these benefits?” The answer is, not necessarily. If you are not a religious person, you are not totally out of luck. When it comes to faith and belief in sport, religion as a framework is what us social scientists call epiphenomenal, that is to say, it just happens to provide a sufficient condition for high athletic performance, but it is not necessary. What you absolutely do need, is a belief framework that both gives you a sense of shared social identity, and the ability to cope with crises and adversity by removing doubt. These two features are mutually reinforcing and interlocking. Resilience and social identity are inextricably linked.

The X-factor here is not religion itself per se; the X-factor here is that belief and faith in yourself and your abilities, and in having a clear sense of purpose and belonging in your sport. There is a litany of clinical sports psychology studies that have definitively demonstrated the co-variability of this relationship on athletic performance. So I will only cite some of the most well-known: in a large meta-analysis, Feltz and Lirgg (2001) finds that “High self-efficacy expectations have also been shown to be accompanied by low precompetitive anxiety, positive affect, strong goal importance and high personal goals, and high trait sport confidence in athletes” (11) but also important for collective self-efficacy; Hays et al (2009)’s clinical study concludes that “on examination of the processes and perceived mechanisms underlying confidence effects, high sport confidence was found to be synonymous with positive affect, effective competition behaviors, and effective competition focus” (1195); finally, Fransen et al (2015) demonstrated a contagion affect between athletes on a team who exhibit high confidence in collective success and increases team identification which improved overall performance. 

So while our religious and spiritual friends may have a competitive advantage in having a belief structure that easily facilitates these two characteristics required for high performing sports psychology, my non-religious friends need to find that faith and belief in other ways: instead of believing that an all-powerful God is in your corner, channel that same level of belief and faith in yourself, and the work that you’ve put into your craft. Without religion, you are essentially the captain of your soul, and the master of your fate. Your belief in your ability to achieve your goals must be absolute, and you must not doubt when the moment comes for you to perform.

This is more challenging and takes a lot more discipline to do, but it is possible as long as you anchor your purpose in something larger than yourself. Think back to Mathias Steiner’s gold medal at the 2008 Olympic Games: he was propelled to victory by the promise made to his late wife. Furthermore, you need to situate your participation in the sport among a larger community that you can identify with. Maybe it’s your friends, loved ones, and family that have put up with your obsessive need to train and find a gym when travelling, maybe it’s your team or your club that you have grind alongside with year after year. For my weightlifters out there, I know ours can be a solitary sport from time to time, but I know even the most introverted among you who have felt the rush of endorphins in training in a high energy setting will agree that it beats the hell out training in your own basement any day. Find your weightlifting family, clan, or kin, and I promise you, you will be able to weather many storm this sport has to offer. It’s as Nietzsche said, “he who has a reason for why can handle almost any how.”

I must caution you that there is a caveat to having this unwavering faith and belief in yourself and your athletic performance – you must temper it with humility. It’s a fine line between self-efficacy and fanaticism and arrogance, between sense of community and elitism and exclusion. As much as you need to know how to turn on this absolute faith and belief, you also need to know when you turn it off so that you can smooth out your own areas of growth and development. Your belief structure and framework need to remain flexible to accommodate change and not become so rigid that it becomes immune to feedback or improvement. I don’t need to explain in an age of hyper-polarization why having rigid belief structures can be detrimental to both the self and the community. Remember, a large part of why we want to keep going in the sport is that it is intrinsically fulfilling and enjoyable, so if we all become too rigid, we may end up fracturing ourselves more than we bring ourselves together.