BEIJING — Two weeks before leaving to compete in the Olympics, the archer Brady Ellison waded into a pool not far from the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, Calif., and was baptized in the Christian faith.

In the water with him was Kisik Lee, the head coach of the U.S. archery team and a Christian who has become a spiritual guide for Ellison, 19, and the larger group of athletes who train and live full time at the Olympic Training Center. He has also served as a sponsor in the baptism of three other resident archers.

During the Olympics, Lee and at least three of the five U.S. archers who qualified to compete in Beijing met every morning to sing hymns and read from the Bible, and to attend church together in the chapel at the Olympic Village. Lee believes having a strong faith makes for better archers because it helps quiet their minds. To that end, he tailored Ellison’s Olympic schedule to include both spiritual and athletic objectives.

“I give him six tasks a day, including reading the Bible and education,” Lee said. “And he’s doing it.”

Not everyone’s a fan

But Lee’s advocacy has raised concerns within the U.S. Olympic Committee, and some in the elite archery community feel uncomfortable with his proselytizing. The mother of a teenage archer who lived at the center said she worried that complaining about it might jeopardize her daughter’s future in the sport.

Lee said coaching was more of a challenge for him when members of the team did not share his beliefs. “I don’t want to have any favorites,” he said. “I would love to be fair for everyone. But sooner or later, if they can see through me God, that’s what I want to try to do. I’m not God, and I can’t drive them to God, but I can pray for them.”

About a year ago, Lee was warned by USOC officials, who oversee the center, not to pressure athletes to participate in religious activities.

“The USOC explained that athletes are free to choose their religious preferences and it cannot be a condition of participation on any team or camp,” John Ruger, the athlete ombudsman for the USOC, said in an e-mail message.

Ruger said that he had identified the issue while looking into other matters of “team dynamics” and said that no athlete had formally complained.

“Some athletes do have an athlete-generated daily Bible session at the OTC, but participation is voluntary as far as the USOC knows and the coach does not attend,” Ruger said.

Yet Lee said he had continued to pray with the Christian athletes in morning sessions at the center.

A fine line

The USOC is a nonprofit organization designated by Congress as the country’s representative at the Olympics. Nearly entirely private, it receives no direct government funding.

Because of this quasi-public status, the USOC has a responsibility to ensure that coaches do not overstep their boundaries when it comes to preaching to athletes, said Richard Lapchick, the director of the University of Central Florida’s Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport. “They have a responsibility to be inclusive and to embrace diversity, and we often think of diversity as a racial or gender thing,” he said. “But religion is definitely a big part of it as well.”

Lee, 51, came to the United States two years ago as part of an effort to revamp the archery program after Americans failed to take home any medals in the 2004 Athens Games. His arrival was greeted with excitement because Lee served in the 1980s and ’90s as the national coach of his native South Korea, helping the team win eight gold medals. In 1997, he moved to Australia and was that team’s coach for the Sydney Games, where Simon Fairweather won a gold medal.

In Beijing, none of the American archers won a medal. Khatuna Lorig had the strongest finish, placing fifth in women’s individual.

As the national coach, Lee helps distribute grants for high-level archers and select resident athletes, as well as those named to the junior development team. For athletes who live at the center, Lee evaluates their progress and helps decide whether they can continue in the program.

“He has the highest reputation of coaching in the world,” said Larry Skinner, a former assistant at the center. “He was very successful, and we needed someone like that.”

A zeal for Christianity

The coach also brought a zeal for the Christian faith. Lee said he had a personal encounter with Jesus in 1999 that transformed his life. He described his faith as nondenominational and said he felt compelled to encourage others to know God.

“I just want to show them who I am,” he said. “I’m the witness of Jesus, not just an instructor. So I have to encourage them how, how we can change in Christ.”

Several current and former resident archers praised Lee’s technique as a coach and a mentor. “I was really impressed with him and his philosophy on life and stuff, and just how he carried himself in general,” said Guy Krueger, a former resident athlete whom Lee helped baptize. Krueger is now an assistant coach at the center. He also attends the daily prayer sessions.

Kate Anderson, an archer who lived at the center from 2005 through April of this year, said although she was not religious, she was not bothered by the coach’s proselytizing. “It was a way for him to show that he cared about all of his athletes, and not that there was any pressure behind that,” she said.

One archer who lived at the training center and her mother said the coach’s proselytizing made them feel uncomfortable. “I wondered if the Olympic Training Center, if it was an appropriate place to be pressing people to decide on their faith,” said Susan Caldwell, of Fort Collins, Colo., whose daughter, Raquel, was 16 when she was accepted to train in Chula Vista in 2006.

The Caldwells are Buddhist. “To me, it felt like he did have expectations of people turning toward Christianity,” Susan Caldwell said.

Raquel Caldwell said when she arrived at Chula Vista, Lee gave her and the other new archers copies of the book “The Purpose Driven Life” by the evangelical pastor Rick Warren. When Lee invited the team to attend his Korean church, everyone went, she said. They later began attending the nondenominational Flood Church in San Diego, which is tailored more to young adults.

Raquel, who did not try to qualify for the Olympic team, gave a conflicted account of her experience at the center, first saying she sometimes felt pressure “to comply with what they were wanting, with their beliefs, and I had a hard time with that.” But later, she said: “They were definitely understanding of that. He didn’t pressure me to convert.”

To be an effective archer, Lee said, athletes must learn to clear their heads and focus. “If you are Christian,” he said, “then people can have that kind of empty mind.”