Eric Liddell was one of the greatest athletes Scotland has ever produced. After winning many races in Scotland in the early 1920s, in 1923 in London he won the 100 yard dash in 9.7 seconds, setting a British record that would not be broken for 35 years. The next week at the Triangular Contest at Stoke-On-Trent in England he won the 100, 220 and 440 yard races. He won the 440 race in what observers said was one of the most remarkable quarter mile races ever run. Near the beginning of the race he was pushed off the track, stumbling onto the grass and losing 20 yards on the other runners. However, with a superhuman effort he came back against a top field of runners to win by two yards. When asked about his success in races, he said, “The first half I run as fast as I can, and the second half I run faster with God’s help.” In the 1924 Olympics Liddell stood firm on his principles and rather than compete on a Sunday in his favored race, the 100, he ran in the 400 meters. He ran the first 200 meters almost as fast as the gold medalist had run the 200 meter race two days before. Most thought he would surely fade at that pace, but toward the final stretch when his competitor started closing the gap to two meters, Liddell put his head back in his inimitable style and drew from deep within to put on a burst of speed and win by five meters in world record time. In the book, The Flying Scotsman, Sally Magnusson says, “his faith was so deeply a part of the cast of his mind and personality, that he came to live his life in a way which people, reminiscing over his incandescent memory, would over and over again call Christ-like (33).”
Eric Liddell winning the Gold Medal in the 400 meter race at the 1924 Olympics.