Eric Liddell Refused to Run on a Sunday and Won the Wrong Olympic Distance Anyway

Eric Liddell was a 22-year-old Scottish theology student in 1924, and the fastest 100-meter runner in the British Empire. He had been favored for sprint gold at the Paris Olympics and was the obvious British anchor leg for the 4×100 relay. Then the British Olympic Association printed the schedule for the 100-meter heats and Liddell saw they fell on a Sunday. He had been raised by Scottish Congregationalist missionaries in China; for him, the Sabbath was non-negotiable. He withdrew from the 100 meters, the 4×100 relay, and the 4×400 relay, all of which had Sunday components, and shifted his training to the 400 meters, which had heats midweek.

The 400 was not his event. He had run it occasionally and won; the world record was 47.0. On the morning of the final, July 11, an American team masseur slipped him a note that quoted the Book of Samuel: "He that honours me I will honour." Liddell tucked it into his palm and ran the race. He was drawn into the outside lane, which made it impossible to gauge the field, and went out at sprint pace. He held his lead through the final straight. The clock read 47.6 — an Olympic record and a European record, three full meters ahead of the second-place finisher Horatio Fitch.

Liddell returned to China in 1925 as a missionary and stayed for nearly twenty years, eventually trapped behind Japanese lines. He was interned at the Weihsien camp in Shandong from 1943 onward. He spent his last two years organizing camp activities, especially for the children, and developed a brain tumor that went undiagnosed under the camp's collapsing medical resources. He died on February 21, 1945, five months before liberation. His story was filmed in 1981 as Chariots of Fire.