Ray Notgrass: One hundred years ago, a Christian athlete ran for the glory of God--and he won!
Titus Anderson: [music in background] Welcome to Exploring History with Ray Notgrass, a production of Notgrass History.
Ray Notgrass: I’m Ray Notgrass. Thanks for listening.
From July 26 to August 11 this year, the Summer Olympic Games are scheduled to take place in Paris, France. One hundred years ago, in 1924, Paris hosted another edition of the summer Olympics. Competing that year was a remarkable athlete who was also a remarkable person, a man of Christian principle who chose to follow his conscience rather than run for the title of fastest athlete in the world. He still managed to win Olympic gold, but even that was not the greatest accomplishment of his life. That came with his giving his life in service to God.
The person I’m talking about is Eric Liddell. You might have heard of him as the subject of the 1981 movie Chariots of Fire. The movie won the Academy Award for Best Picture of that year, along with three other Oscars. The movie takes some liberties with Liddell’s story but it is a moving tribute to his faith and his athletic skill.
Eric was born in 1902 in Tientsin, China. His parents were missionaries there. China at that time was a chaotic, dangerous place. Competing factions fought for power, and a strong movement worked to eliminate all foreign influences in China, and that included foreign missionaries.
When Eric was five, his family returned to their native Scotland for a furlough. His parents decided to leave Eric and his siblings in Britain for their schooling, which was a common practice of missionaries at the time. Not only did Eric do well in his studies, but he also showed remarkable athletic skills in school competitions. He completed what we would call his high school education in 1920 and enrolled in the University of Edinburgh in Scotland the following year. There he focused his studies on physics and chemistry and continued to make a name for himself in athletics. Eric became known as the Flying Scotsman, and people started talking about him as a possible entrant in the 1924 Olympics.
Kim Traynor, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
But Eric Liddell never wanted glory for himself in his athletic endeavors. He always wanted to run for the glory of God. In the spring of 1923, Liddell began sharing about his faith publicly with groups who invited him.. He didn’t enjoy public speaking, but large crowds came to listen to his testimony. During the summer of 1923, Eric showed the intensity of his competitive spirit. Just after the start of a quarter-mile race, another runner knocked Eric down. He got up, and even though he was now 20 yards behind the runner in front, Eric ran intensely and won the race. But he injured himself with this ferocious run and didn’t win another race that year.
The other major focus of the movie was Harold Abrahams, a British athlete with a burning desire to win for the sake of his Jewish people. A major point of the movie was Abrahams’ use of a professional trainer as he prepared for the Olympics. This was pretty much unheard of in 1924. The Olympics were supposed to be the competition of the best amateur athletes in the world, and using a professional trainer was dangerously close to making Abrahams a professional. One example of the strict enforcement of this rule was that the Native Nation American athlete Jim Thorpe won the Olympic decathlon and pentathlon in 1912, but it was later discovered that Thorpe had played semi-pro baseball for two summers prior to the Olympics. Baseball was not one of the sports Thorpe competed in during the Olympics, but his getting paid for playing made him, in the eyes of the International Olympic Committee, a professional athlete. So the IOC stripped him of his medals, and it was not until 2022 that they were posthumously returned to Thorpe.
It turns out that Eric Liddell used a trainer also, but this man worked only as a volunteer. This was the arrangement they had because Liddell had to protect his amateur status.
By the way, the IOC began changing their policy in the 1980s, so the Olympics today bring together the world’s greatest athletes, not just amateur athletes. Today’s Olympians compete not just for medals but for product endorsement contracts and other sponsorships. Television coverage provides big money for the IOC and for Olympic athletes. It’s an entirely different operation from the way the Olympics took place a hundred years ago.
But back to our story. When the Olympic teams were announced in the fall of 1923, Abrahams and Liddell both qualified for the 100 meter dash. This was going to create a great showdown between two of the fastest runners in the world. Except that there was a problem. Liddell’s qualifying heat was scheduled to take place on a Sunday, and Liddell strictly refused to take part in athletic competition on the Lord’s Day. He believed that doing so would dishonor God.
In the movie, Liddell learns of this scheduling problem from a reporter as he is boarding the ship that would take the British team across the English Channel to France. Actually, he learned of the conflict the previous fall. His refusal to run was not popular in Britain, especially Scotland, as the Scots anticipated their first chance to win Olympic gold. Nor was Liddell’s decision popular with the British Olympic Committee.
The British Committee tried to convince Liddell to change his mind. It’s only a heat, they reminded him, not the final race. It would take place in the afternoon, so he would have time for church in the morning. The British Committee tried to get the IOC to reschedule the heat to another day. Nothing worked.
The solution to which everyone finally agreed was that Liddell would drop out of the 100 meter race and seek to qualify for the 400 meter run. The 100 meter dash and the 400 meter race are different kinds of races and require different training and strategy. Many wondered if Liddell could make the switch, but he began training for it.
In early July of 1924, about 2,000 athletes gathered in Paris for the competition. By comparison, about 10,000 athletes will take part in this year’s Olympics. On Monday, July 7, 1924, Harold Abahams won the 100 meter dash and with it the title of world’s fastest human. His time was 10.6 seconds, which tied the world record. The current men’s world record is 9.58 seconds, set by Usain Bolt of Jamaica. Two days later came the running of the 200 meter race. Two Americans, Jackson Scholz and Charley Paddock, took gold and silver. Eric Liddell placed third and won the bronze. Harold Abrahams, sadly, finished last. Abrahams did, however, win a silver medal as a member of the 4 x 400 meter relay team.
Thursday, July 10, saw the running of the 400 meter race. As Liddell left the hotel that morning, a member of the British entourage handed him a note that read, “It says in the old book, ‘Him that honors Me I will honor.’ Wishing you the best of success always.” That old book, of course, is the Bible, and the statement is a quotation from 1 Samuel 2:30. As the runners lined up on the track, Liddell kept to his tradition of shaking hands with all of the other runners. Liddell not only won the 400 meters, he won it going away, increasing his lead to five meters at the finish line ahead of the second place finisher, and setting a new world record of 47.6 seconds. The current world record is 43.03 seconds. Liddell always ran with the distinctive style of throwing his head back as he neared the finish line. It worked well for him.
Two days after Liddell returned from the Olympics, he graduated from the University of Edinburgh. He then announced that he would discontinue his running career and become a missionary to China like his parents. Liddell studied theology in Edinburgh for a year, and during that time he spoke to groups often about his faith.
Liddell moved to China in 1925 to teach in the Anglo-Chinese College in Tientsin. The mission strategy there was for the school to influence the sons of wealthy Chinese families with the gospel so that the future leaders of China would be Christian. There he met Florence MacKenzie, the daughter of a missionary family from Canada. As their romance grew, her father insisted that Florence first return to Canada and complete three years training as a nurse. This brought about the first of many separations that Eric and Florence endured. Eric was ordained as a minister in 1932, and he and Florence were married in 1934.
But then Japan invaded China and inflicted great damage and loss of life, in what became a buildup to World War II in the Pacific. The college where Eric taught was closed, and Eric carried out ministerial duties in cities that were engulfed in war. In 1941 Eric and Florence decided that Florence and their children would return to Canada for their safety. Eric expected to follow in a year or so. But when she left, it was the last time they saw each other.
In 1943 the Japanese rounded up all foreign nationals and sent them to an internment camp. In the camp, Eric became a servant to all who needed physical help and spiritual encouragement. Eric became ill from a brain tumor, and he died on February 1, 1945, at the age of 43. Years later, the Chinese government revealed that Eric had given up his place as part of a prisoner exchange to a woman who was expecting a child.
Rolfmueller, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
By the way, Harold Abrahams suffered a career-ending injury in 1925. He became an attorney, radio broadcaster, and author, and was chairman of the British Amateur Athletics Board for several years. He died in 1978.
The Bible occasionally uses athletic imagery to describe the Christian life.
Having just described many who were faithful to God in previous generations, the writer of Hebrews says in chapter 12, verses 1 and 2, “Since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
Paul in 1 Corinthians 9:24-25 tells us, “Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown.”
Today athletes train for years for just a few moments in the spotlight. They run for a perishable reward, but we run for an imperishable one.
As intense as Eric Liddell was about running, he was even more intense and committed about serving the Lord. As remarkable as his win was in the 1924 Olympics, his race for Christ was even more remarkable.
I’m Ray Notgrass. Thanks for listening.
Titus Anderson: This has been Exploring History with Ray Notgrass, a production of Notgrass History. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast in your favorite podcast app. And please leave a rating and review so that we can reach more people with our episodes. If you want to learn about new homeschool resources and opportunities from Notgrass History, you can sign up for our email newsletter at ExploringHistoryPodcast.com. This program was produced by me, Titus Anderson. Thanks for listening!
Visit Homeschool History for links to more photos and information about Eric Liddell and resources about the Olympics.