Eric Liddell 101 years on: missing the point

Cast your minds back to last year and you will remember the extensive coverage of the 100th anniversary of Christian Eric Liddell’s glorious victory at the Paris 1924 Olympic Games.

As I wrote last summer as the games returned to Paris, Liddell, a down-to-earth Scottish runner from Edinburgh, aimed to win gold medals in the 100 and 200 metre sprint races, only to discover that the 100m heats were due to be held on a Sunday.

As can be read in last year’s piece, this was a huge problem, as Liddell took the observance of the Lord’s Sabbath Day seriously, in line with the fourth commandment, and he declined to run in the race, instead eventually running in and spectacularly winning gold in the 400m event, having not previously trained at that distance.