GAIL DRAKE: Paris was site of steadfast 1924 Olympic champion

“He that honors me I will honor” I Samuel 2:30

We don’t know yet the drama that will unfold in the 2024 Paris Games. But 100 years ago, Paris hosted the “Games of the VIII Olympiad” that proved to be quite dramatic. Highlights from the 1924 Summer Games include several memorable athletes:

· Austro-Hungarian-born swimmer Johnny Weissmuller won three gold medals and one bronze in water polo. He won more gold in the 1928 Amsterdam games, then moved on as an actor playing “Tarzan the Ape Man” in 12 movies, followed by 16 “Jungle Jim” movies and 26 “Jungle Jim” TV episodes.

· The “Flying Finns” dominated the long-distance running competitions. Finland athlete Paavo Nurmi won the 1,500-meter and 5,000-meter as well as cross country. Villa Ritola won the 10,000-meter and the 3,000 steeplechase, and Albin Stenroos was victorious in the marathon.

· British runner Harold Abrahams won the 100-meter, and Scotland’s Eric Liddell competed in a race he had trained for only a few months. A devout Christian, Liddell refused to run the 100-meter race, his strongest event, because it was scheduled on a Sunday. One hundred years later, his story remains well-known, dramatized in the 1981 Oscar-winning movie “Chariots of Fire.”

Eric Liddell was born in Qing, northern China, to Scottish missionaries. As a child, he and his brother attended a London Christian boarding school where he excelled as an athlete in cricket and rugby. He enrolled at the University of Edinburgh, where he continued as a rugby champion but was best known for his speed. He was directed to run track and won every race, soon known as the fastest runner in Scotland. Newspapers touted his British record of 9.7 seconds for the 100-yard race, a record not beaten for 23 years.

Months before the Olympics, Liddell learned that heats for the 100-meter would be held on Sunday, and he withdrew from the race. (Unlike what was depicted in the movie, learning the race schedule while on the gangplank of the ship leaving for Paris). Liddell endured much criticism and pressure for his decision, but he was resolute.

“Obedience to God’s will is the secret to spiritual knowledge and insight. It is not willingness to know, but willingness to do God’s will that brings certainty,” he said.

He spent the next few months training for the 200- and 400-meter races, but his time of 49.6 seconds was modest. The 400 meter is notorious for its lung torture.

In Paris, Liddell raced in the 200-meter and won the bronze medal. Teammate Abrahams came in 6th place. It was their last race together.

On the morning of the Olympic 400-meter final, the 51st Highland Brigade pipe band played for an hour. Just before the race, Liddell was handed a folded piece of paper by a teammate that read, “In the old book it says: ‘He that honors me I will honor.’”

At the track, Liddell was assigned to the outside lane and therefore deprived of a view of the other runners. With his trowel, he cut himself a launching pad in the clay track. Then he got to his mark. Set. Then the gun.

Liddell raced the first 200 meters with the sprint he had used a few days before in the 200. Then he continued to sprint down and around the bend. Challenged from behind, he kept pushing. He threw back his head and clawed the air, his signature running style, and ran down the home stretch. He broke the Olympic record with his time of 47.6 seconds.

After the Olympics, Liddell returned to finish his bachelor’s degree and competed in races for another year. Then he left fame and fortune behind and set sail for northern China to serve as a missionary. He first taught science at the Anglo-Chines College as well as coaching athletics. A few years later, he met and married Florence, a fellow missionary in China, and together they served in an impoverished region of China.

In 1941, Japan threatened an invasion. Liddell sent his wife and daughters to her family in Canada and went to assist his brother, a missionary doctor, exhausted from extensive medical work. Months later, the Japanese took over the missionary station. In 1943, Liddell was interned in the Weihsien Interment Camp, a compact space occupied by 1,800 adults and children. Liddell helped organize the camp and scarce supplies. He focused on caring for the elderly and teaching the children. Children who survived that interment later wrote to describe Liddell:

“Often in the evening, I would see him bent over a chessboard or model boat, or directing some sort of square dance – absorbed, weary and interested, pouring all of himself into this effort to capture the imagination of these penned-up youths,” one wrote. “He was overflowing with good humor and love for life.”

On Feb. 21, 1945, Liddell died in the POW camp of a brain tumor. All of Scotland mourned.