Olympic Gold Medalist Tara Lipinski has endorsed the book Go for God's Gold -- Develop Your Spiritual Strength Through Sports. The book was written by Michael Henty. Catholic Courier reports that Henty comares athletic training with spiritual training.

The training required of Olympic athletes is not all that different from the spiritual training required of people trying to live Christian lives, maintains Henty, who belongs to St. Alphonsus Parish in Auburn. A longtime gymnastics coach, Henty hopes his book will help athletes recognize the virtues they've most likely learned -- often without even realizing it -- during the course of their training and learn how to apply those virtues to their spiritual lives.

Athletes in training must learn the value of perseverance, discipline and courage. They know how important these virtues are on the playing field, but they're valuable off the field as well, Henty said.

Other famous athlete endorsers are Olympic gold medal speed skater Dan Jansen and Mike Sweeney of the Oakland Athletics.