We can always learn from others - especially those who have been successful on the highest level. I enjoyed reading Heart of a Champion and was able to get some good nuggets from Steve Riach's book.

Brilliant stories that places living faith into a context people can understand. Enjoyable and informative..

Heart of a Champion by Steve Riach is a very interesting book. And very useful for all the generations. I liked it even though my time elapsed before I could read it thoroughly.

Review of Heart of A Champion by Steve Riach

Heart of A Champion is a collection of stories about athletes from various sports. Each one is a hero in his or her sport. They are men and women who have achieved incredible success at the highest levels of their professions. They are names you will recognize even if you are not a sports junkie. You see them on your TV and their stats are splashed all over the internet for those who are fantasy sports participants.

The book would be worth reading if all it contained were their professional stories. How they got to the professional leagues or attained Olympic gold medals. It provides a glimpse into the back stories of their lives. Where they came from, who were their influences growing up, and how they got involved in the sport that has made them famous. Riach does a great job of providing the details about why we should hold these people up as successes in their sports through stats, histories, and quotes from teammates and coaches.

But that is not where the stories end. These men and women are not just champions on the fields, courts, and stadiums. There is something deeper that drives them to be the type of athlete that uses their platform to achieve a greater purpose. The author allows the reader to get to know the other side of these famous stars. The side often unseen by the average fan. Many of them are great givers to causes that have deep personal connections to their past. My guess is that everyone who reads this book will find something about someone in the book they didn’t know before they started reading. When there are so many sordid stories about entitled athletes, this book is a fresh breeze of hope for the redemption of professional sports.

In addition to supporting good causes, these athletes share a common faith in Jesus Christ. Their faith stories are interwoven in a way that makes the reader see them as real people with real faith and real struggles. After you have read each short story, you feel like you have just sat down and had coffee or tea with each athlete and they had a chance to tell you who they really are off the field or court. It’s done in such a way that it isn’t pushy or hokey. So this would be a great gift to give to any sports fan, regardless of their religious beliefs.

If you are a sports fan, you’ll love reading this book. If you are a pessimistic sports fan, you’ll be encouraged by reading this book. If you are a Christian sports fan, you’ll find your faith strengthened by reading this book. I really believe you will find value in the pages and the format allows you to skip around and read at your own pace. I highly recommend this book to everyone.

I was provided a free copy of this book by the publisher for my honest review.

These are great inspirational stories! I love how they incorporate points of view from the athletes and also from the author. I love the small snippets in these famous peoples lives! It makes them relatable in some sense to us commoners,

This book is replete with engaging stories, a resource I would gladly use in my own sermon writing. Quality narratives that engage.