27 January 2010
NETT KNOX-SPORTS CHAPLAIN-MOTHER OF 3 TEENAGERS-
HEADS FOR VANCOUVER OLYMPICS
Nett Knox has been a Sports Chaplain for 12 years and is the only full-time female
Chaplain in Australia. This will be Nett’s fourth Olympics.
Says Nett, ‘many of us as spectators will get to witness the world’s best athletes in
action at these Winter Olympics. On our screens we get to see them up close and
personal. We even get to know a bit about them and the people who support them
–
family, sponsors, managers, and coaches. But as Chaplains, “trust” is the key
to my role being effective. There are a lot of people athletes cannot and perhaps
should not trust, but when they know they can trust me to keep everything they
talk about confidential, it supports them. It gives them an unconditional confidante.
“The Olympics” is a very emotional and high pressure atmosphere. The athletes,
and even the support staff, experience all the normal emotions all of us would feel:
loneliness, isolation, fear, away from their family and support base. There are
always things that go wrong: they can be injured and can’t compete to the best of
their ability or can’t compete at all. That can be devastating. Their life is their sport
and without their sport a lot of them feel like their life is gone’.
Nett will hopefully be billeted with a family in Vancouver, but unlike the Beijing
Games, Vancouver Olympic has not ‘outfitted’ their volunteer chaplains. She has
to seek her own financial support. Nett still has not raised her Air Fare let alone
expense money.
Do religion and sport mix? That is an age old question. Says Nett, ‘we saw them
collide in Chariots of Fire, when Eric Liddell had to battle his own religious beliefs
and those of the English in the lead-up to winning his Gold in the Paris Olympics in
1924, so I think these days the relationship is much easier’.
Betty Moore, former International athlete and world record holder, who attended
the Sports Chaplaincy Australia’s 25th Anniversary Dinner in Sydney October 2009
says that Sport Chaplaincy is a very necessary adjunct to team management and
it’s available to ALL athletes.
If you would like to contact Nett before she leaves on 4th February 2010
please contact her on 0402309326.
OR
Christine Leaves
Publicist: Phone (02) 9653 8261 email: elpez@bigpond.com
NEWS 
