Although Eric Liddle is probably best known through the film about the 1924 Olympics in Paris called “Chariots of Fire,” his true triumph was found as he gave his life to ministry in China. Liddell was a sprinter who ran with great passion and an outspoken Christian. He refused to run in the event he had trained for (the 100 meter sprint) because it took place on a Sunday and violated the commandment to “remember the Sabbath and keep it holy”. In honoring God, he took on the much longer distance run of the grueling 400-meter race instead. He not only won the gold, he broke the world and Olympic record for the 400 meter...The governments of the world for that moment understood the power of a man when his life was without compromise. For Eric, the decision was final, it was God first, and everything else second.

In the Edinborough Evening News of that evening it said: “It was the last 50 meters, that meant the making or breaking of Eric Liddle”...The last 50
meters...Nobody would ever know Eric Liddle because he ran the first 200 meters one second inside of the 200 meter record time. It was because HE
FINISHED...Writing, years later, as a missionary in China when Eric was asked about how he won the 400 meters, he said: “The secret of my success over the
400 meters is that I ran the first 200 as hard as I could... and then for the second 200 (with God’s help)...I ran it harder!”