He That Honours Me, I Will Honour

‘I wonder if I’m doing the right thing?’ Doubts clouded his mind. But only for a moment. ‘No, no, I’m sure I’m right’. And so the decision was reached. Sunday was the Lord’s Day and Eric Liddell (1902 – 1945) would not be running for his country in the 100 metres at the Paris Olympics.

Instead, Liddell was entered for the 400 metres, an event he had not previously trained for and for which he was given no hope of winning. So much so, despite getting through the heats, he had the outside lane at the final, and hence had no idea how the other runners were doing.

In his hand before the race was a note. It was given to Eric by the athletics masseur who attended to the British team and read: ‘In the old book it says “he that honours me, I will honour.” Wishing you the best of success always.’

As the gun went off on the afternoon of 11^th July 1924, Liddell was away at a 100 metre pace. No one believed he could keep it up, but as he entered the home straight, running with his head up, he seemed to be increasing his lead! He crossed the line in first place with a new world record time of 47.6 seconds.

The Olympic motto is ‘faster, higher, stronger’. What was to follow the Olympics showed Liddell to be all of these. He had proved his speed. As he travelled to China as a missionary, he was to prove his strength, serving the Chinese people and refusing to leave as the Japanese invaded during the Second World War. And finally, as he died in an internment camp in China of a brain haemorrhage, he was taken higher.

Fifty-six years after the 1924 Paris Olympics, Scotsman Allan Wells won the 100 metres at the 1980 Moscow Olympics. When asked after the victory if he had run the race for Harold Abrahams, the last 100 metre Olympic winner from Britain (in 1924) who had died two years previously, Wells replied, ‘No, … I would prefer to dedicate this to Eric Liddell’.

There is a memorial headstone on the site of the former internment camp in China, recognising Liddell’s service to China. The scripture reference reads "They shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary."

As we approach the 2012 Olympics in London and the film ‘Chariots of Fire’ is re-released, we do well to remember a man for whom running was so closely linked to a faith for which he died.

Further Reading:

Eric Liddell: Pure Gold by David McCasland

The Flying Scotsman by Sally Magnusson

Further viewing:

Chariots of Fire, produced by David Putnam, 1981