2024 marks the hundredth anniversary of the Olympic triumph of Eric Liddell, a man who, in every way, ran the race of his life.
Liddell was born in 1902 in northern China to Christian missionaries from Scotland. While his parents continued to work in China, Liddell was educated in London and, at an early age, made a commitment to follow Jesus Christ.
He took his faith seriously, believing that because Jesus had died for him, his life should be spent serving other people and God.
At school it became obvious that Liddell was an outstanding sportsman, and while studying science at university he played for Scotland’s national rugby team.
In 1923 he shifted his focus to athletics where he was soon recognised as the fastest runner in Scotland. He was selected for the British team for the 1924 Olympics in Paris, with the expectation that he would run in several races, including the 100m where he was thought to be the likely winner.
‘ He that honours me, I will honour.’
Liddell believed that his response to what God had done for him included keeping Sunday free from sport, so when he heard that the heats for the 100m would be held on a Sunday, he refused to take part. It was a courageous decision.
Liddell came under enormous pressure from both the British Olympics management and the popular press to change his mind. He refused to compromise his faith and instead trained for the 200m and 400m races.
Liddell ran the 200m and won a bronze medal. He prepared for the 400m, but it was a distance over which he was not expected to do well. On the morning of the race he was handed a slip of paper
on which was written the Bible quote, ‘He that honours me, I will honour.’
Encouraged, Liddell took the race at a sprint pace and won, breaking the Olympic and world records. Already well known because of the battle over his principles, Liddell’s dramatic and surprising victory made him a global celebrity.
Eric Liddell’s story doesn’t end there.
After the Olympics, he rejected various appealing opportunities in sports,
announcing his firm conviction that ‘God had made him for China’, where he became a teacher in a Christian college in 1925.
Five years later he travelled to Scotland to be trained and appointed as a church leader and then returned to China, where he married the daughter of Canadian missionaries. During the 1930s a brutal three-way war between the Nationalists, the Communists and the invading Imperial Japanese Army made China increasingly perilous.
‘ God had made him for China’
By 1941 the threat of Japanese invasion was so great that British nationals were advised to leave. Liddell’s children and his wife – pregnant with their third child – left. Liddell, committed to the Chinese people, decided to stay.
In 1943, along with other missionaries and foreigners, Eric Liddell was imprisoned by the invaders and sent to a brutal prison camp with harsh and insanitary conditions. There he became a much-respected leader. He helped the elderly, encouraged the depressed, resolved quarrels and taught Bible classes. He also prayed deeply for both inmates and his captors, whom he forgave.
‘ They shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary.’
Malnourished, Liddell’s health failed and in 1945, just five months before liberation, he died from a brain tumour aged just 43.
At the site of the camp his grave is marked with a memorial headstone inscribed with words from Isaiah 40:31 : ‘They shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary.’
Although Eric Liddell was widely mourned at the time of his death, he was soon forgotten. However, his story returned to the world’s attention in 1981 through the Oscar-winning film Chariots of Fire.
The film depicted a man who put God before his sporting career.
In the renewed interest in Liddell, one thing emerged: all who remembered him recalled how he shone as a man who lived for others because he lived for Christ. We all run the race of our lives. It’s a race of unknown length and none of us knows when we will reach the finishing line. Eric Liddell’s life asks us questions.
What takes priority in our
lives?
Liddell believed that Jesus Christ was his Lord and as a result everything else – sport, pleasure or career – took second place. What comes first with us? Is it worth it?
What controls how we live?
Whether we agree with Liddell’s attitude to sport on Sunday is irrelevant; he believed it was God’s ruling for him and, quite rightly, refused to break it. He held firm to the principles he lived by. Who, or what, controls us?
What price are we prepared to pay?
It’s easy to talk about ‘doing the right thing’ until you have to pay the price.
At the 1924 Olympics, Liddell was prepared to pay the price for doing right. He paid the price again when he rejected promising career opportunities to take on a humble teaching post in China. And finally, he paid a heavy price when, saying farewell to his
family and the child he would never see, he chose to stay in China and serve God and people.
Liddell’s life was dominated by three things: one guide, the Bible; one figure, Jesus, whom he took as his living Lord; one goal, giving all he had for the Jesus who had saved him. Eric Liddell ran the race of his life faithfully and well. Will you?
ONE HUNDRED years ago, Eric Liddell became a global celebrity with a dramatic victory in the Paris 1924 Olympic Games. His triumph is re-told in the film Chariots of Fire, but there is more to his story . . .
On the 100th anniversary of his famous race, discover what inspired Liddell and learn how each of us can run the race of our lives.