For U.S. biathlete Paul Schommer, the targets he faces on an Olympic course have always pointed to something deeper. In a sport defined by precision under pressure — where winds shift, weather changes and fatigue can disrupt even the steadiest hand — Schommer sees in it a reflection of his Lord.
“There’s this redemption aspect of it that’s really cool, because your past shooting doesn’t have to define your next shooting,” Schommer told the Baptist Press earlier this month. “It’s hard. It humiliates you. Just when you think you got it figured out, you don’t. But there are always new opportunities that await you if you just keep moving forward.”
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That mindset carried him onto one of the world’s biggest stages at the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics in Italy, where he competed in four biathlon events. He didn’t threaten for a medal (but finished as the second American) in each of his three individual races. However, he helped the U.S. relay team place fifth — the best Olympic result ever for an American biathlon relay team. Before this year, the Americans’ best relay finish was sixth place, achieved three times (twice by men, once by women).
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But for Schommer, life is more than his biathlon successes or failures.
“You have to be able to focus and perform in the midst of all that chaos to still hit the target,” he told the Baptist Press. “Life doesn’t stop for you.”
Schommer’s understanding of identity — separate from results — was shaped long before he became an Olympian. He grew up attending church, but it wasn’t until his teenage years that everything started to click. Through his involvement with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA), he began to recognize what the grace of Jesus meant for himself.
“I really started to understand that God actually likes me,” Schommer told the Baptist Press. “He actually wants to speak to me. He wants to move in my life in a way that goes beyond understanding or comprehension at times.”
That truth met him in the middle of one of the most difficult seasons of his life. During his high school years in Wisconsin, he battled an eating disorder, which he said brought “a ton of shame and guilt” into his life.
“I thought I wasn’t good enough, and as a result of that, I really tried to hide what I was going through from other people,” he said in a video from the Rogers Behavioral Health Foundation. “But when I was going through that, I think I was also hiding aspects of what I was going through from myself.”
At the root of it was a desire for approval — a need he came to realize couldn’t be satisfied by performance or perception.
“Finding the confidence within myself, and learning how to love myself, has allowed me to be able to now show up every single day in biathlon, giving my full self — knowing that the results I achieve or do not achieve don’t affect my worth,” he said in the video. “It’s me as a person that matters.”
Schommer still competes with an intensity befitting of a two-time Olympian; like any elite athlete, he wants to perform at his best. But, God has shifted his perspective.
“What’s the heart of God like?” he asked the Baptist Press as a rhetorical question. “Does His heart change based off the result? Is He surprised by the result? Or is He an all-knowing, all-loving God who understands the mistakes that we’re going to make before we make them? Does He allow us to go through some of these things to shape and mold us?”
That foundation of faith in Jesus has been consistent throughout his career.
“My identity doesn’t come from my results, and it doesn’t come from affirmation of others,” Schommer told FCA in 2018, “but it comes through my identity in Christ because He’s the One who gives me my meaning.”
Schommer has proclaimed that message publicly as well, describing himself as “Redeemed by Jesus” on Instagram.
In a February 2025 post, Schommer reflected on the uncertainty of pursuing his goal of qualifying for the world championships in Lenzerheide, Switzerland, and the perseverance it required to keep going.
“There were times I wanted to rip it down and tear it up into pieces because the reality of failure seemed imminent,” he wrote in his caption about a piece of paper stating that goal. “But I knew giving up would mean guaranteed failure, so I pressed on putting one foot in front of the other even when I didn’t see a path to the end goal.”
Referencing Romans 5:3-4, he described how trials produce perseverance, character, and finally, hope — a lesson that has played out both on and off the course.
“Without hope I may have given up,” he wrote, “but I am learning that our path may not be as direct as we want, but it will get us to our destination, and that journey #StartsNOW.”
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Like many professional athletes, Schommer has had to be intentional about investing in his faith in the midst of a demanding schedule. He reads the Bible and prays regularly with a teammate, though he misses being part of a consistent church community.
“It’s just not a true replacement for what I feel like we’re really called to do: to live in community, to be there for one another when times are tough and the times are good, to celebrate with each other and to share meals and to challenge each other and just walk through life together,” he told the Baptist Press.
That’s something he’s looking forward to changing.
Schommer has completed all his events at this year’s Games, and he’s announced that this Olympic season marks the end of his competitive biathlon career. With the extra time, he plans to invest more deeply in his local church.
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