{"id":9988,"date":"2026-02-13T15:13:57","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T02:13:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/?p=9988"},"modified":"2026-02-13T15:47:02","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T02:47:02","slug":"winter-olympics-call-to-pray-for-the-14-participating-countries-that-persecute-christians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/?p=9988","title":{"rendered":"Winter Olympics: Call to pray for the 14 participating countries that persecute Christians"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The 2026 Winter\u00a0Olympic Games\u00a0have begun in the Italian cities of Milano and Cortina d’Ampezzo.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

From 6-22 February, over 3,500 athletes from 93 countries will compete for Olympic gold in skiing, figure skating or ice hockey, among many other sports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Furthermore, organisers estimate that more than 2 million spectators will travel to northern Italy<\/a> to attend the Milano-Cortina Games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Christian organisation Open Doors<\/a>, \u201cat their best, the Games are a time for people from countries across the world to put aside differences and compete in a peaceful way, a reminder that all people share common humanity\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor Christians, this can be extended, the Olympics can be a visible reminder that every human being is made in God’s image\u201d, they add.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is why the organisation encourages Christians worldwide to \u201ctake that one step farther and use the Olympics in a potentially surprising way: to pray\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

192 athletes from countries that persecute Christians<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Open Doors has launched a campaign to pray for the 14 countries participating in the Milano Cortina Games that are also on the\u00a02026 World Watch List\u00a0of the 50 places where it is most dangerous to be a Christian.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 14 countries are: Eritrea (5), Nigeria (7), Pakistan (8), Iran (10), India (12), Saudi Arabia (13), China (17), Morocco (23), Uzbekistan (25), Mexico (30), Kyrgyzstan(40), T\u00fcrkiye (41), Kazakhstan (45), and Colombia (47).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Are you tuning into the Winter Olympics?

If so, did you know that 14 of the competing nations are on the\u00a0#WorldWatchList<\/a>, with four in the top ten? That makes it a wonderful opportunity to pray for our persecuted family.

The countries are Eritrea (#5), Nigeria (#7), Pakistan\u2026\u00a0pic.twitter.com\/IeCgfanug2\u2014 Open Doors UK (@OpenDoorsUK)\u00a0February 5, 2026<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

They explain how many athletes each country has sent to the Games, and which sports they compete in. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In total, 192 athletes from these countries are competin in Milano-Cortina.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The country with the most athletes is China, with 125; followed by Kazakhstan (36), Turkey (8), Mexico (5), and Iran (4). The rest of the countries only have one or two Olympic participants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most of them will compete in different skiing disciplines, while other sports featuring athletes from these countries include speed skating and figure skating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWatch and pray\u201d<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Open Doors also describes the situation of Christians in each of the fourteen countries, the risks they face, and their needs. It also includes a\u00a0short prayer for each country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs you watch the events where the athletes will be competing, take a moment to think about the situation of your brothers and sisters in that country and pray for it\u201d, the groups writes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prayer topics range from \u201cthe extreme surveillance, violent police raids and\u00a0indefinite imprisonment\u201d suffered by Christians in\u00a0Eritrea, the most dangerous country among those participating in the Games; to the\u00a0ongoing violence\u00a0perpetrated by terrorist groups against Christians in\u00a0Nigeria; and the everyday\u00a0discrimination\u00a0and threats of deadly violence and blasphemy accusations faced by\u00a0Pakistani\u00a0Christians.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 2026 Winter\u00a0Olympic Games\u00a0have begun in the Italian cities of Milano and Cortina d’Ampezzo. From 6-22 February, over 3,500 athletes from 93 countries will compete for Olympic gold in skiing, figure skating or ice hockey, among many other sports. Furthermore, organisers estimate that more than 2 million spectators will travel to northern Italy to attend the Milano-Cortina<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9990,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[204],"tags":[109,630,496],"coauthors":[380],"class_list":{"0":"post-9988","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-persecution","8":"tag-persecution","9":"tag-prayer","10":"tag-winter-olympics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9988"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9988\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9991,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9988\/revisions\/9991"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9988"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=9988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}