The geriatrics have triumphed in Paris. Simone Biles, the greatest of all gymnasts, won gold medals in Paris, the same ones she won at Rio 2016. She is 27 now, elderly amongst gymnasts, and to win medals eight years apart in that sport is stunning.
Novak Djokovic, the greatest tennis player in the history of the men’s game, won gold in Paris, an astonishing 16 years after winning bronze in Beijing. His dominance at age 37 — defeating players 16 years his junior — is unparalleled, and admired by all fair-minded tennis fans. Sadly many fans resent that the Serb is the greatest ever, having been enchanted by the elegant Roger Federer or infatuated by the glamorous Rafael Nadal. Having left both of them behind, Djokovic completed his collection of tennis titles by winning gold for Serbia; the emotion of the moment left the passionate patriot shaking and weeping with emotion.
The longest time between honours may belong to Eric Liddell, who won gold in the men’s 400 metres at the 1924 Olympics, the last time Paris hosted the games. A few weeks ago, to mark the centenary of that win, the University of Edinburgh awarded him a posthumous honorary doctorate. It was accepted by Patricia Liddell Russell, his daughter, who travelled from Ontario for the ceremony. Liddell married a Canadian, and his widow and children have been in Canada since the 1940s.
You know his story — or at least part of it — even if you don’t remember his name. Liddell, along with his fellow British sprinter Harold Abrahams, were the principal figures whose story was told in the 1981 film Chariots of Fire. The greatest Olympic film ever made, it won Best Picture at the Academy Awards.
Abrahams was the disciplined, scientific sprinter who trained with expert coaching and excruciating precision, shaving fractions of a second from his time. He would win the 100 metres gold in Paris. His great rival was the wild Liddell, the “Flying Scot,” who threw aerodynamics to the wind, running with head back, mouth agape, arms flailing and legs churning. Britain sent both to the 1924 Olympics. Who would prevail?
Liddell was born in 1902 to Christian missionary parents in China. His family returned to Scotland and he grew up there, an accomplished rugby player who ran with reckless abandon and remarkable speed.
In Paris 1924, the trials for the 100 metres were scheduled for Sunday. Liddell refused to run on the Christian Sabbath. (In the film this is a last-minute development; in reality it was known well in advance.) Enormous pressure was brought to bear on Liddell, to run on Sunday for king and country. He professed himself to be the king’s good servant, and to love his country, but he would love and serve God first.
It was not a popular stand, but Liddell stood firm. He would not run, neither out of fear nor to seek favour.
A solution was found. Liddell would not contest the 100 metres, his speciality. That cleared the way for Abrahams to win gold. He would run instead in the 400 metres, a much different kind of race.
Liddell had little strategy. He just ran as fast as he could from the start. The others expected that he would not maintain the pace. He did. They stumbled trying to keep up. He won gold.
All Scotland rejoiced, and the story of the principled Christian captured the attention of the Paris games. While Chariots of Fire made his story well known in the 1980s, Liddell’s triumph was a global sensation in the 1920s.
In 1925, Liddell would return to China as a Christian missionary. (He would remain there until 1945, when he died in a Japanese internment camp just months before the end of World War II.)
In 1934, he would marry Florence Mackenzie, daughter of Canadian missionary parents in China. They would have three daughters, the youngest of which Liddell would never meet. With the advancing Japanese invasion, Liddell’s expectant wife hastened back to Canada with their daughters. Liddell would remain in China while his family settled in Hamilton, Ont.
He loved China, and because of his birth and death there, he is affectionately called by some China’s first Olympic gold medallist. That was all before Mao’s revolution, so his memory is no longer honoured by the Chinese communists.
In Scotland though, the honours still come. He was inducted into the Scotland Sports Hall of Fame, and there is an Eric Liddell Centre for those living with dementia. A graduate of the University of Edinburgh in 1924, Liddell was granted an honorary doctorate this year to mark the centenary of his degree and the Olympic medal.
Liddell’s most famous quotation is not something he actually said, but from the screenplay of Chariots of Fire.
“I believe God made me for a purpose,” Liddell tells his sister. “For China. But He also made me fast. And when I run, I feel His pleasure.”
Liddell ran faster than grown men, with the joy of a boy delighted in the running itself. He lived his life — and his running — as a gift from God to be generously shared with others.
“The glory of God is man fully alive,” wrote Saint Irenaeus, when the games were still being contested in ancient Athens. Liddell in full flight is what Irenaeus had in mind. The drama of 1924 made Liddell, almost uniquely, a champion of the Olympic ideal and the Christian spirit.
This latest honour from Liddell’s alma mater, accepted by his Canadian family, follows the decision by the University of Edinburgh to erect in 1991 a memorial headstone at Liddell’s missionary camp site in China. There could only be one inscription: They shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary — Isaiah 40:31.
National Post