Eric Liddell was a Scottish sprinter, rugby player, and Christian missionary who lived from 16 January 1902 until 21 February 1945. Born to Scottish missionary parents in Tianjin, China, he went to boarding school close to London and spent as much time as he could with his family in Edinburgh before enrolling at the University of Edinburgh.
Because the 100-meter race was scheduled for a Sunday at the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris, Eric Liddell declined to run in the heat. Instead, he participated in and won the 400-meter event that was held on a weekday. After being called as a Congregational pastor in 1932, he taught Bible studies on a regular basis at Edinburgh’s Morningside Congregational Church. In 1925, he went back to China to work as a missionary teacher. He lived in China until his death in a Japanese civilian prison camp in 1945, with the exception of two furloughs in Scotland.
Ian Charleson, a fellow Scot and University of Edinburgh alumnus, plays Eric Liddell in the 1981 Oscar-winning film Chariots of Fire, which chronicles his Olympic training and racing as well as the religious beliefs that shaped him.
Early Life
The Reverend and Mrs. James Dunlop Liddell, who were Scottish missionaries with the London Missionary Society, had a second son, Liddell, who was born in Tientsin, China, on January 16, 1902. Liddell attended school in China until he was five years old. He and his brother Robert, who was eight years old, were enrolled in Eltham College, a boarding school for missionary boys in south London, when he was six years old. Jenny, their sister, and their dad went back to China. Their parents, sister, and infant brother Ernest arrived home on furlough two or three times during the boys’ tenure at Eltham, allowing them to spend time together as a family, primarily in Edinburgh.
Eric Liddell excelled as an athlete at Eltham, winning the Blackheath Cup as the year’s best athlete and, by the age of 15, playing for both the First XI and the First XV before rising to the position of captain both the rugby union and cricket teams. George Robertson, his headmaster, said he was “entirely without vanity.”
He gained notoriety as Scotland’s fastest runner while attending the University of Edinburgh. His achievements at track competitions were reported in newspapers, and numerous pieces implied that he would win an Olympic medal.
As a devoted Christian, Eric Liddell was selected by D.P. Thomson, one of the co-founders of the GSEU, to speak on behalf of the Glasgow Students’ Evangelistic Union. In order to spread the gospel, the GSEU believed he would attract sizable crowds. Eight to ten soldiers would be dispatched by the GSEU to a location where they would reside with the locals. Liddell was responsible for evangelizing the men of Scotland and serving as the main speaker.
Education
In 1920, Liddell enrolled in the University of Edinburgh to study Pure Science alongside his brother Robert. His time at university was heavily influenced by rugby and athletics. He played rugby for the University Club and competed for the university in the 100- and 220-yard races. He played for Edinburgh District in the inter-city matches against Glasgow District on 3 December 1921 and 2 December 1922, from which he gained a place in the backline of a strong Scotland national rugby union side.
In 1922 and 1923, he featured in seven out of eight Five Nations matches, and scored back-to-back tries in four games, which included wins against Ireland, France, and Wales.
The Scotsman felt that “never again should it be held against him that he is ‘only a runner'” following Scotland’s 1923 victory over Ireland, while The Student claimed that Liddell possessed “that rare combination, pace and the gift of rugby brains and hands” despite his primary weapon being speed. Due to his accomplishments, Liddell was inducted into the Scottish Rugby Hall of Fame on the centennial of his first international cap against France in January 1922.
Following his victories in the 1923 AAA Championships, Eric Liddell was crowned the national 100-yard and 220-yard champions. He achieved a British record of 9.7 seconds in the 100 yards, which would not be matched for 23 years. Following the 1924 Summer Olympics, he earned a Bachelor of Science degree.
In commemoration of Liddell’s contributions to sport and mankind, the university granted him a posthumous Doctor honoris causa degree on July 15, 2024, nearly a century after he won the gold medal in the 400 meters in Paris. Patricia Liddell Russell, his daughter, who had traveled from Canada for the event, accepted the degree.
Olympian of faith
The city of Paris hosted the Summer Olympics in 1924. Because the heats were scheduled for a Sunday, Liddell, a devoted Christian, decided not to compete in his finest event, the 100-meter race. His choice was determined far in advance of the Games because the schedule had been released a few months before. Although his best pre-Olympic performance of 49.6 seconds, set in winning the 1924 AAA championship 440-yard sprint, was small by world standards, Liddell spent the intervening months training for the 400-meter event. One of the team masseurs gave Liddell a folded sheet of paper on the morning of the Olympic 400-meter final on July 11, 1924.
Later, when he read it, he discovered the following message: “The old book states: ‘He who honors me I will honor.'” I’m wishing you further success. Acknowledging the allusion to 1 Samuel 2:30, Eric Liddell was very touched that someone besides his coach had faith in him and his position.
An hour before he ran, the 51st Highland Brigade pipe band performed outside the stadium. Before coasting down the back straight, runners raced around the first bend in the 400-meter race, which was previously thought of as a middle-distance event.
He was challenged all the way down the home straight but managed to hold on to win, breaking both the Olympic and world records with a time of 47.6 seconds, which was controversially ratified as a world record, despite being 0.2 seconds slower than the record for the greater distance of 440 yards. Having been inspired by the biblical message and deprived of a view of the other runners because he drew the outside lane, Liddell raced the entire first 200 meters to stay well clear of the preferred Americans.
A few days prior, Eric Liddell had participated in the 200-meter finals, where he defeated British competitor and teammate Harold Abrahams, who placed sixth, to win the bronze medal behind Americans Jackson Scholz and Charles Paddock. These two runners met for the second and final time in this race.
Before being defeated by another British athlete, Godfrey Brown, at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, his result in the 400-meter event in Paris had been the European record for 12 years.
Liddell continued to participate after graduating from the University of Edinburgh and the Olympics. He had also missed Britain’s third-place result in the Olympic 4 × 400-meter relay because he had refused to compete on Sunday.
He helped the British Empire defeat the Americans, who had won the gold medal in Paris, by running the last leg of the 4 × 400-meter event shortly after the Games. In 1925, he won the 440-yard race in 47.7 seconds, tied his Scottish championship record of 10.0 seconds in the 100-yard race, and was a member of a successful relay team at the Scottish Amateur Athletics Association (SAAA) meeting held in Glasgow’s Hampden Park. He accomplished this feat in 1924 and 1925, making him just the fourth athlete to win all three sprints at the SAAA. His last races in Britain were these.
Liddell is listed as China’s first Olympic champion in some of that nation’s Olympic publications because he was born and died there.
Eric Liddell Missionary
Like his parents, Eric Liddell returned to Northern China to work as a missionary from 1925 to 1943, first in Tianjin and then in the town of Xiaozhang, Zaoqiang County, Hengshui, Hebei province. This region was incredibly impoverished, had been plagued by the nation’s civil wars, and had become a particularly dangerous battleground during the Japanese invasion.
While serving as a missionary in China, he continued to compete occasionally, winning the 200- and 400-meter races against members of the French and Japanese Olympic teams in 1928 at the South Manchurian Railway celebrations in China. He also won the North China championship in 1930. He only made two trips back to Scotland, in 1932 and 1939. He was once questioned about if he ever felt remorse for leaving behind the wealth and prestige of sports. It’s normal for a man to reflect about all of that occasionally, but I’m happy that I’m working at the job I’m doing right now,” Liddell retorted. Here, a man’s life is significantly more important than another’s.
Eric Liddell began his career as a missionary at the Anglo-Chinese College, which educated affluent Chinese students in grades 1–12. Prior to establishing the school in 1902, its principal, Dr. Samuel Lavington Hart, was a well-known physicist and a graduate of the University of Cambridge. Dr. Hart thought that by educating the children of the rich, he would help them advance Christian principles and become powerful people in China. In 1925, Liddell started teaching science and math at the school, supporting its aim. Liddell also trained boys in several sports by drawing on his athletic background. Yu Wenji, a former pupil of Liddell’s, claims that Liddell “was very serious when protecting students’ rights.”
He once got into a fight with the headmaster over his request for further financial aid for students from low-income families. The Sunday school superintendent position at Union Church, where his father served as pastor, was one of Liddell’s many duties. A plaque honoring Liddell’s apartment in Tianjin is located at 38 Chongqing Dao, previously Cambridge Road. In Tianjin, he also contributed to the construction of Minyuan Stadium.
In 1932, while on his first furlough from missionary service, he received his Congregational Union of Scotland ministerial ordination. In 1934, he returned to China and married Florence Mackenzie, who was the daughter of Canadian missionaries, in Tianjin. In an attempt to court his future bride, Liddell took her to lunch at the still-open Kiesling restaurant in Tianjin.
In 1932, while on his first furlough from missionary service, he received his Congregational Union of Scotland ministerial ordination. In 1934, he returned to China and married Florence Mackenzie, who was the daughter of Canadian missionaries, in Tianjin. In an attempt to court his future bride, Liddell took her to lunch at the still-open Kiesling restaurant in Tianjin. Maureen, Patricia, and Heather were the couple’s three children, the last of whom he would not survive to see. Liddell taught at a school that is still in existence today. In 1991, one of his daughters traveled to Tianjin and gave one of Liddell’s medals from his sporting career to the school’s headmaster.
The British government encouraged British citizens to leave China in 1941 because Japanese aggression had made life there so unsafe. Eric Liddell took a job at a rural mission station in Xiaozhang that catered to the impoverished, and Florence (who was expecting Maureen) and the kids went for Canada to live with her relatives. He went there with his brother, Rob, a doctor. The missionaries at the station were worn out and there was a serious lack of assistance. For medical care, a steady flow of residents arrived at all hours. After his brother became unwell and had to leave on furlough, Liddell made it to the station in time to relieve him. Liddell himself endured a great deal of suffering while at the mission.
Portrayals on film, TV and stage
- The story of Liddell and fellow sprinter Harold Abrahams is the focus of the 1981 Oscar-winning movie Chariots of Fire. Ian Charleson portrays Liddell in it.
- The Eric Liddell tale, which describes his life and work as a Christian missionary, is included in the 2007 film series The Torchlighters: Heroes of the Faith.
- Jack Lowden played Liddell in the 2012 adaptation of the 1981 movie, Chariots of Fire.
- Joseph Fiennes plays Liddell in the 2016 Beijing Forbidden City Studio-produced film On Wings of Eagles (Chinese: 终极胜利, original English title: The Last Race), which was directed by Hong Kong filmmaker Stephen Shin and follows Liddell’s return to China and subsequent life following the 1924 Olympics.
Chariots of Fire
One of the inaccuracies in the 1981 film Chariots of Fire, which compares and contrasts the lives and perspectives of Eric Liddell and Harold Abrahams, is Liddell’s refusal to compete in the 100-meter event at the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris. The film shows Eric Liddell boarding the boat that will transport the British Olympic team across the English Channel to Paris and learning that one of the heats was scheduled for a Sunday. However, the schedule and Liddell’s decision were known months in advance, and his refusal to compete is still noteworthy. He was also chosen to compete in the Olympic 4 × 100-meter and 4 × 400-meter relays, but he turned down both offers because the finals were scheduled for a Sunday.
The genuine event took place at a Triangular Contest meet between Scotland, England, and Ireland at Stoke-on-Trent, England, in July 1923. In one scene, Eric Liddell is seen falling early in a 440-yard race in a Scotland–France dual meet and making up a 20-yard deficit to win. A few steps into the race, Liddell was thrown to the ground. After hesitating, he stood up and followed his opponents, keeping a 20-yard lead. Shortly before the finish line, he caught up to the leaders and fell after crossing the tape.
While researching the movie with screenwriter Colin Welland, producer David Puttnam watched video of a 1924 movie featuring Liddell and Abrahams. It is also claimed that Liddell’s unconventional running style, which features his head back and his mouth open, is true. A visitor to Glasgow who was watching the 440-yard final at an athletics championship said to a Glasgow local that Liddell would have a difficult time winning the race because he was well behind the leaders at the beginning of the final lap (on a 220-yard track). Simply put, the Glaswegian said, “His head’s no’ back yet.” After that, Liddell flung his head back and won the race by catching and passing his rivals with his lips open.
“He is remembered among athletics fans as probably the ugliest runner who ever won an Olympic championship,” The Guardian said in its 1945 report on his passing. His massive sweeping stride, head flung back, and arms clawing the air caused the Americans and other highly skilled professionals to laugh out loud when he made an appearance in the heat of the 400-meter race in Paris in 1924. When Liddell’s style was criticized, rival Harold Abrahams responded, “People may shout their heads off about his appalling style.” Let them, then. He arrives.
Why did Eric Liddell refuse to run on Sunday?
Since Sunday was a day of rest and worship for him as a devoted Christian, Eric Liddell declined to compete in the 100-meter race in the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris. He switched to the 400-meter race, which he won in a world-record time, because he valued his religious convictions and the Sabbath more than winning his strongest event.
