Well, it’s July… and before we know it, the Olympics and Paralympics will have arrived! For the moment, many in Australia have been burning the midnight oil, glued to televisions watching Australian Cadel Evans and others in the Tour de France. We love winners, don’t we. But many people are not aware of the first time an Australian sportsperson took on the world and won.

In 1876, on the Thames River in London, Edward Trickett beat Joseph Sadler claiming the title of Sculling Champion of the World and in doing so, became Australia’s first world champion in any discipline.

When Trickett arrived back in Australia, he was greeted at Sydney’s Circular Quay by 30,000 cheering fans! He quickly became a national hero.

Later in life though, Edward Trickett fell on hard times and ended up walking the streets of Sydney desperate, depressed and suicidal. He came across a street preacher, a barrister by the name of EP Field. Moved by what he heard, Trickett found a personal faith in Jesus.

A book written about Edward Trickett some years later said that as a Christian “he was a better man in every way and happier than when he was the champion oarsman of the world.” Australia’s first sporting world champion discovered that a life of faith gave him what a life of fame could not.

(*this story has been reproduced almost verbatim with permission from ‘the daily nudge’ radio segments/website)