Christian Heptathlete, Anna Hall, Wins Silver: Strength, agility, endurance, and speed have propelled world silver medallist Anna Hall to the pinnacle of her discipline.
But the 22-year-old will immediately tell you that it is her faith in Christ that has kept her afloat through the ups and downs of her career.
Hall won the USA Track and Field Championships in the heptathlon just six weeks ago, allowing her to compete in the World Championships.
Last week, she finished second by the tiniest of margins to Britain’s Katarina Johnson-Thompson in the World Championships.
“I went for it,” Hall said after the race. “Very bittersweet. I really wanted gold and I just fought my heart out and it just wasn’t there this year for me. Kat was just better today and I got beat.”
Hall’s Instagram account reveals that she believes that her success is a matter of God’s timing, often writing #HisTiming on her posts. The adage, “His Timing”, is also written on her track spikes, or running shoes.
She identifies herself as a “Follower of Christ” on social media and has referenced Romans 8:18 when reflecting on her performance at the World Championships.
Hall recently told Olympics.com that when she broke her foot God began to change the way she viewed track and field.
“The injury was a really big inflection point in my career,” she said. “I honestly don’t think I would have done what I did last year had I not gotten injured. As much as it hurt and I was so upset and I cried for months and I felt so bad for myself, I really think, honestly, that was God’s way of showing me, ‘OK, you need to change the way you’re looking at track.'”
As she sets her sights on the Paris 2024 Olympics, Hall says she is thankful for all that she has been through.
“I would say that I’m actually thankful for [the injury],” she said. “I think it just made last year just a really great story that a lot of other people have told me they were able to relate to… or that it helped them get through an injury. And so that’s been really, really special to me.”