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As a 17 year old Kirstin Holum was touted as a future star when she was placed sixth in the gruelling 3,000 metres event. She was expected not to reach her peak for another decade because of the time it took to build up the resilience required for the demanding sport.
“Speed skating was such a huge part of my life,” Holumn said. “I still loved the sport, but I had this incredibly strong calling that it was time to move on and take a different path in life.”
That calling had begun on a pilgrimage to Fatima. She decided outside the Fatima basilica that she wanted to follow a religious calling.
After completing an art degree, including a thesis on the Olympics at the Art Institute of Chicago, Holum, taking the name Catherine, joined the Franciscan Sisters of the Renewal, whose mission is “work with the poor and homeless and evangelization.”
Based first in New York, Sister Catherine and her fellow nuns stepped onto the mean streets of the Bronx to work with some of the most underprivileged children in areas steeped in gang culture. Such work and sacrifice in homeless shelters and soup kitchens gave her a deep-rooted sense of satisfaction that skating had never been able to provide.
Last year, missionary work took Sister Catherine to England, where she has found her previous life as an athlete a useful tool in providing some “street cred” when dealing with skeptical youngsters.
“When I give my religious testimonies, it is fun to watch the reaction of the kids when I tell them I was in the Olympics,” she laughed. “Their eyes get really big and they start paying a lot more attention. It is a great thing to share with them and it gives me a lot of pleasure to think back and talk about it.”
There is no television and no internet at St. Joseph’s Convent in Leeds, England, meaning Holum won’t get to watch the Winter Olympics where she was supposed to become a star.
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