Rebecca Dussault competing in cross country skiing at the 2006 Winter Olympic Games in Turin, Italy.
Perhaps the skis Rebecca Dussault used on the snow of Torino in the 2006 Olympic Winter Games say it all. “I wrote ‘Blessed Frassati’ on my skis and drew a crucifix,” she recalled. “Women skiing behind me would have to ski right on the tails of a hand-drawn crucifix!”
Welcome to "Fields Full of Grace: The Faith at Play," casting a spotlight on the devotional practices of college and professional athletes and coaches on and off the field.
By Jay Sorgi
Rebecca Dussault lived a life of dual, very individual vocations — one which often felt more solitary and challenging than training for a 30-kilometer Olympic ski race.
But she was never truly alone.
The 2006 Team USA Olympic cross country skier and winter triathlon world champion had teammates, competitors, and fans surrounding her as she put skis to snow on the pathways of Pragelato, Italy for the Olympic Winter Games in Turin, the same course which will host the competition for the 2026 Games in February.
But the deeper competition where Dussault felt more alone? The battle to live her Catholic faith without human community, truly feeling by herself. Except for the God who lived, and deeply lives today, within and around her.
Struggle and consolation
“I struggled to even have a Christian teammate, let alone a Catholic teammate,” said the wife, mother of eight kids on Earth and three in Heaven, and Catholic fitness coach.
“I had to be very, very self-advocating to remain faithful to my faith, traveling with the U.S. Ski Team. I was too shy to speak up for myself and say, ‘I really need to go to Mass. I know we have to race Sunday morning, but I need someone to help get me to Mass Saturday evening.’ I didn’t have anyone advocating for me. I would have to skip the Saturday team meal altogether and just walk myself all the way into town to the church so that I could go to Mass.”
Dussault, who now lives in Idaho, says her times of consolation came in receiving the Eucharist and rejecting a social culture surrounding elite individual sports that she believes shows she “didn’t belong to the world” she was in while faithfully living her marriage.
“Sometimes it was the strength of not going out to go drink at the pub with other athletes,” she said. “Some of the temptation of that culture is, ‘What happens in Europe stays in Europe,’ and ‘Let’s hook up while we’re over in Europe,’” she said.
“I remember one late night I was in my bed and reading a book about St. Francis. I hear the Norwegian men’s team come into the hallway and tell our men’s team, ‘We’ll trade our women’s team for your women’s team.’ I just remember being like St. Francis and pulling the covers up over my head. I’m not cut from that cloth. It was not easy. It was not easy to don the long woolen skirts down to my ankles and walk off to Mass by myself.”
Family foundation
The core of Dussault’s faith that kept her morally strong was built within the family that homeschooled her in Gunnison, Colorado, a family which practices the Byzantine Catholic faith which is in full communion with the Pope. Incredibly but blessedly, those homeschooling lessons which became what she describes as “truth glue” came beside the man who’s now her husband, Sharbel.
“It was when I was 13 and began homeschooling with my now in-laws’ family that my interior life came 'online',” she recalled.
“Our experiences were rich from World Youth Days around the world to Marian conferences and family conferences. It was an unpacking of so much. It deepened as I learned apologetics and learned to defend the faith, just building me up.”
Those lessons further grew with the Eucharist she grew to love in youth Masses and her discovery of the meaning of Mary, the mother of God.
“Every May, we would go out into the garden or wherever and pick as many little flowers as we could, whatever was blooming in Colorado at the time, and make a teeny tiny crown for Our Lady’s statue, and sing Marian songs.
“We prayed a daily Rosary at night and it didn’t matter who was there,” she continued. “It was like Grand Central Station, a hub for all the neighborhood kids, whether they were Catholic or not. One mom would always yell out from the porch, ‘Time for family Rosary!’ which they chanted off the porch. We’d all flock there, and it didn’t matter who was there and if they had ever prayed the Rosary.”
Dussault still prays the Rosary often and dives on a regular basis into discovering more about Marian apparitions, presenting a powerful example as homeschooling mother to her children.
Frassati on skis
Perhaps the skis Dussault used on the snow of Torino in the 2006 Games say it all.
“I wrote ‘Blessed Frassati’ on my skis and drew a crucifix,” she recalled. “Women skiing behind me would have to ski right on the tails of a hand-drawn crucifix!”
Those skis caught the attention of Italian press about a U.S. skier promoting an Italian candidate for sainthood, one who was canonized St. Pier Giorgio Frassati in October 2025.
“Just being there, my mission became the Olympics, but also to spread devotion to Blessed Pier Giorgio,” she said.
Dussault even had her Olympic ring inscribed with the words “Blessed Frassati” who was renowned for his love of mountain climbing and skiing.” She lost the ring, but it was later found on the floor of a vehicle that was about to be destroyed after towing.
Today, away from the Olympic spotlight, Dussault’s faith continues to deepen.
“That very temporal experience of Olympic competition is so far in the rear view mirror now, almost 20 years later,” she noted, “but the spiritual graces, maturation and experience of that time — they just keep growing and building.”
{shopmercy-ad}
