Scottish athlete Eric Liddell won the 400m gold at the Paris Olympics on 11 July 1924 – but he's just as famous for a race he didn't run. In History looks at the real story behind the Chariots of Fire movie myth. The son of Christian missionaries, Eric Liddell was born in China in 1902 and died there 43 years later in a Japanese internment camp.
In between, he played for Scotland at rugby, won Olympic gold for Britain and inspired an Oscar-winning film about his athletic exploits many years later. After his spectacular early success, he spent the rest of his life working as a missionary even when it meant putting himself in danger. He died without ever meeting his youngest daughter.
It was an extraordinary life, marked by faith, tragedy and courage. At the age of five, Liddell returned from China with his parents to Scotland and he was sent away to the School for the Sons of Missionaries in London, later known as Eltham College. In 1920 he returned to Scotland to study at the University of Edinburgh.
His outstanding potential as an athlete was spotted straight away, with the Glasgow Herald tipping him as a future British champion. According to Liddell's university friend Prof Neil Campbell , his running style was unorthodox but not ungainly. Speaking to the BBC in 1984, he said: "He certainly ran very often with his head back.
Now, people say, 'Well, how did he see where to go?' But you put your head back, you can still see perfectly well what's ahead of you. He used his ar.
