{"id":84641,"date":"2026-07-20T08:32:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T12:32:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/?p=84641"},"modified":"2026-07-20T08:32:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T12:32:15","slug":"she-gave-up-her-olympic-dreams-to-become-a-nun-now-shes-raised-2-6m-to-feed-families-by-running-marathons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/she-gave-up-her-olympic-dreams-to-become-a-nun-now-shes-raised-2-6m-to-feed-families-by-running-marathons\/","title":{"rendered":"She Gave Up Her Olympic Dreams To Become A Nun. Now, She&#8217;s Raised $2.6M To Feed Families By Running Marathons"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>From <em>GoodGoodGood:<\/em><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.prod.website-files.com\/5f6cc9cd16d59d990c8fca33\/6a42a5e7c52f2720424a3952_nun-runs-marathons-for-charity-chicago-sister-stephanie.jpg\" alt=\"A woman in a yellow shirt high-fives an onlooker at the Chicago Half Marathon\" width=\"210\" height=\"279\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Sister Stephanie Baliga, a nun living and working at Chicago\u2019s Mission of Our Lady of the Angels, was almost an Olympian.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI started running when I was 9, and running became my life,\u201d Baliga told\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wttw.com\/jayschicago\/sister-stephanie-still-running\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">WTTW<\/a>, a local PBS station. \u201cIt was how I defined myself and who I was.\u201d\u00a0Baliga was the sixth-fastest freshman runner in the nation when she was a student athlete at the University of Illinois, training hours a day, and preparing for a professional career. As a sophomore, however, she fractured her foot. She traded her hours on the track for prayer, which resulted in the realization that she wanted to devote her life to God.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From GoodGoodGood: Sister Stephanie Baliga, a nun living and working at Chicago\u2019s Mission of Our Lady of the Angels, was.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-84641","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-news","7":"entry"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84641\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}