It was the Olympic "dive" seen around the world—but it wasn't in the pool, it was on the track as David Neville leaned in—way in—to secure the bronze medal in the men's 400-meter final by just 4 hundredths of a second. (You can watch the race and David's post-race interview here.)

"God might have pushed me over," David told reporters in Beijing. The 24-year-old is a devout Christian and does youth ministry in Valencia, California. Igniteyourfaith.com asked David about that dive, his two Olympic medals, and about the journey that brought him to that moment.

What was going through your head when you dove across the finish line?

It just popped into my head that I had to give it my all, my last ditch effort. I was trying to get a super huge lean, but in the end it turned into looking like I was diving across the line. I was really just going out there doing everything I needed to do to secure that spot. I didn't even know if I was in third place, I just wanted to give it my all. And to end up seeing third place pop up with my name—I was just overjoyed and excited.

After you won your medals (bronze in the 400m and gold in the 4x400m relay), you told news reporters you wanted to give all the glory to God. What does that mean to you?

When I run track, everything I do is to the glory of God because I want to honor him and bless him with the gift he has given me. The gift he's given me is to run track and field, so when I'm on a "stage" like the Olympics and there are so many people watching, I need to make sure God is recognized. I want to let people know that in a sense it's not me who's running this race, but it's God. I want to glorify him with my efforts.

What other opportunities did God give you to share your faith while you were at the Olympics?

Before the Olympics started, we were stationed in Dalian, China, for a training camp and they had a Bible study there for the athletes. Something happened and the lady running the Bible studies wasn't going to be able to make it back in time to teach. She called our hotel and asked someone to contact me and see if I would teach the Bible study. It was only a half-hour before the Bible study was supposed to start and I was at lunch. So I quickly ate and then I tried to prepare a lesson in about 15 minutes. It was a great opportunity to share my faith and teach the Word of God to other athletes.

The whole thing was the work of God. The woman in charge of the Bible study didn't know me and didn't know where I was spiritually, but God put it on her heart to ask me to lead the study. And from there I was able to teach God's Word, meet with Athletes in Action counselors and chaplains, and have spiritual conversations with other athletes on our team.

In the Bible, the Christian life is often compared to athletics (Galatians 2:2, 5:7; 2 Timothy 4:7). How do you "keep in shape" spiritually?

First of all, we all need our nutrition, and that nutrition comes from reading the Word of God. We need that meat—that spiritual food. And God can guide us and lead us through his Word. We also need to pray. I continually pray to God. I seek him for advice, I pray about what I'm going through—and when I'm in tough times, I continue to pray.

I've also got "coaches" in my spiritual life, such as my father. When I have questions or when I need prayer for certain things, I know I can ask him and he can pray for me in those situations. He's done that for me ever since I was a little kid. My pastor is also a coach for me. He's always there to give advice and to help me grow spiritually and continue to expand my wings in the work God has for me.

As an athlete, you've learned the value of perseverance and endurance. How has your faith in Jesus helped you persevere through a tough time in your life?

This entire past year has been one of those tough experiences. I moved out here to California to train with my new coach John Smith. I think I had a pretty decent year of training, but when my season started I wasn't running the way I wanted to run. I wasn't running fast. I was getting beat left and right. I think I won only one outdoor race during the whole year.

I was trying to make the Olympic team and my wife Arial kept encouraging me, but deep down I was really getting worried that things weren't going to turn out the way that I wanted them to. But we kept on praying about it, we kept our faith in God.

When it came time for the Olympic trials, things turned around for me. I ended up running fast and qualifying and doing what I needed to do. It happened at just the right time.

As Christians, sometimes things in our lives may be going badly for a while. We don't think we're going to make it through, we don't know what's going to happen. We can't see the light that we want to see at the end of the tunnel and it seems like it's just going to be dark and dim.

But for me, God shined his light on the situation I was in. At the perfect time when I most needed to run fast, that's when I did. I went on from there to make the team and win my medals at the Olympics.

Just in this past year alone, I've had some really tough times. But I learned to keep that faith that God knows what he's doing and he knows when to do it—when it really counts.

Read more from 'Interesting People'

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