PARIS, France — Former Olympic gold medal gymnast Peter Vidmar didn’t have many opportunities to complain about hard training days as a child.
His father, John Vidmar — himself a former gymnast — contracted polio in his late 20s and struggled physically the rest of his life.
His children watched their father “put on a smile” and maneuver his body to accomplish whatever had to be done. For him, it was a daily struggle.
After watching his father, Peter Vidmar knew he could not take his physical gifts for granted or lament the ability to work hard in a gym, day in and day out.
“When I got involved in gymnastics, I had a marvelous coach who taught me many, many life lessons, but his workouts were hard. … I had to go home to John Vidmar every night, and I knew I couldn’t complain.”
That “relentless pursuit of excellence” led Peter Vidmar to the 1984 Olympics — where he won two gold medals and a silver.
Vidmar attended every one of the next 10 Olympic Games in other capacities, not missing one Olympics until 2016 when he presided over the Australia Melbourne Mission of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with his wife, Donna.
This July, just shy of the July 26 opening ceremony for the 2024 Paris Olympics, Vidmar, a member of the Young Men General Advisory Council, is in France to participate in a special Olympic devotional with Presiding Bishop Gérald Caussé on Sunday, July 21. Joining them is former BYU basketball star and Olympian Jimmer Fredette and Rudi Sordes, a French Latter-day Saint who composed music for the opening ceremony of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. The Latter-day Saint Olympians and Church leaders will share their thoughts on sports and the gospel with youth and young adults.
The devotional, broadcast from the Church’s Versailles chapel, will be live streamed on ChurchofJesusChrist.org and YouTube. It begins at 6 p.m. local time in Versailles and Paris (10 a.m. Mountain Time).
“The nations of the world are meeting in Paris,” said Bishop Caussé. “That is just a wonderful thing.”
The Games also provide a backdrop for the devotional, during which young people will hear from Fredette and Vidmar — both of whom have not only experienced athletic excellence but also reflect the Savior’s light in their lives, he said.
Bishop Caussé said he hopes the Latter-day Saint youth and young adults “see two athletes that are like them” — Church members “trying to make a difference in the world and yet facing discouragement at times.”
The Lord wants His children to work hard and trust in Him, said Bishop Caussé.
“We are all born with an inheritance of gifts from the Lord,” said Bishop Caussé. “He asked us to develop those gifts, whatever they may be, to do good in the world, to make a difference in the world, to influence others for good.”
An example of that is Sordes, who grew up in the same ward in France as Bishop Caussé. He is not an athlete but has also experienced Olympic success through sharing his talent of musical composition.
After the devotional, Vidmar plans to return to Utah and watch the Olympic Games on television from his home.
He is in awe of this generation of athletes that are setting records and achieving more than was once considered possible in their sports. “That’s what I love about watching the Olympic Games — to see human potential just expand and expand and expand. It’s just marvelous to me to watch how good these athletes really are.”
Vidmar said his coach, Makoto Sakamoto, made the Olympics a “romantic quest for him.”
But it was not without challenges and setbacks.
In 1983, at the World Gymnastics Championships, Vidmar was in second place going into the finals on the horizontal bar. He knew if he hit his routine, he would be the world champion.
He didn’t.
“I made a mistake, a horrible mistake. And I was just devastated.”
Sakamoto told him, “Peter, this isn’t the end. You’re always learning until your last day of gymnastics.”
For the next six months, he worked on the skill he missed over and over again. He scored a perfect 10 on that skill in the 1984 Olympics. “It was only through the mistake that I realized that I need to work harder on that skill,” he said.
Being in Paris has brought back that memory and more, said Vidmar who described getting off the plane and seeing Olympic signage and volunteers.
“It’s a marvelous event,” he said. “It brings all these nations in the world together in a peaceful setting to play games together.”
