11 August 2024

There was some excitement at the Paris Olympics. It was the men’s 400m. No one from Great Britain had won a gold in this race since the great Scottish athlete and missionary, Eric Liddell in the Paris Olympics of 1924. A hundred years later, we were in with a chance.

The favourite to win this event was Matthew Hudson Smith from Team GB. He led the field in the second half of the race but in the last fifty metres was overtaken by the American Quincy Hall. He ran in 43.40s and just beat Hudson Smith by a margin of 0.04 seconds! Remarkable.

Eric Liddell remains a golden legend from the Paris Olympics. He only ran in the 400m because the heats for his favoured race, the 100m, were held on a Sunday. The men’s 4x100m relay was also held on the Sunday. If Liddell had been able to run, gold was secured. As it was, they got bronze.

Twenty years later, he was interred by the Japanese when they occupied that part of China where Liddell had been working as a missionary. By this time, he was married with two daughters and a third on the way. His wife and family made their escape to Canada. Liddell remained.

In the camp, he continued to teach and organise games for young people even refereeing on a Sunday. He became ill and died on 21 February 1944 from a brain tumour. His last words were reportedly, ‘It’s complete surrender.’ He had surrendered his life to God years before. Death was just the final step in this process.

A fellow prisoner was the theologian, Langdon Gilkey. He summed up Liddell’s character. ‘He was overflowing with good humour and love for life, and with enthusiasm and charm. It is rare indeed that a person has the good fortune to meet a saint, but he came as close to it as anyone I have ever known.’ One good reason to have our own Calendar of Saints!