A different sort of greatness

It is 100 years since Eric Liddell won gold in the Paris 1924 Olympics but it was the athlete's life after that historic win that captured the mind of his biographer Duncan Hamilton

- Duncan Hamilton

Paris, 1924. Eric Liddell is poised at the starting line of the 400m track, a union jack sitting proudly on the breast of his white running kit. It took him 47.6 seconds to make history that day – Liddell set a new Olympic and world record during the sprint. It was a race that would later be immortalised in the 1981 Oscar-winning film Chariots of Fire.

If you have seen the film, you’ll be forgiven for thinking you know the other dramatic storylines in his short life, too – notably that he was more famous for the race that he didn’t win during the Paris Olympics that year. The Scot had been a favourite to take the gold medal for the 100m sprint, but when the event timetable was released, he declined his place. “I’m not running on a Sunday,” he said. His commitment to his religious beliefs came first.

The headlines weren’t kind. Liddell was branded a traitor. He received abuse. Still, he stuck to his conviction. Few believed he would redeem himself in the 400m, a race that required a different athletic discipline from the 100m bolt he had been expected to take part in – and for which a gold medal was considered “the jewel of the Games”.

In just under 48 seconds, though, he was flying over the finish line, delivering an emotional and triumphant end to what The Times would describe the following day as “probably the most dramatic race seen on a running track”. But, as I was to discover, winning a gold medal is actually one of the least interesting things Liddell did with his life.

My fascination with Liddell began as a young boy; my father was also Scottish, so I had grown up hearing bits of his story that were passed around as local folklore and legend. I was in my twenties when I first went to see Chariots of Fire in the week of its cinema release – I liked it so much that I ended up going two or three times more. I saw Liddell as this extraordinary character, someone so sure and yet so full of adventure and uncertainty.