Olympic success

I have not been able to see that much of the Olympics but it has been good to celebrate so much British success. The cyclist Chris Hoy has certainly written his name into the record books.
The 32-year-old Scot becomes the first Briton in 100 years to win three golds at the same Olympics, after his earlier success in the team sprint and keirin. He has also become Scotland’s greatest every Olympian in terms of gold medals.

For me the Olympics always brings thoughts of another great Scottish Olympian, Eric Liddell. His 400m gold medal in the Paris Games of 1924 was a wonderful achievement for the man who at the time was the hot favourite to win the 100m. But he never ran in competitions on a Sunday and kept to this principle despite the importance of the Olympics. His story was largely unknown to many people until the film Chariots of Fire presented the account of how he and Harold Abrahams( two men from very different backgrounds) triumphed in Paris.
Liddell was born in China, the son of Church of Scotland missionaries. He was educated at Eltham College, studied at Edinburgh University and trained as a Congregational minister before he returned to China as a missionary. It was there in 1945 he died in a Japanese Internment Camp.
In the book ‘The Flying Scotsman’, Sally Magnusson tells the story of this remarkable athlete and Christian missionary. When news of his death reached Scotland, many memorial services were held across the country and even in other parts of the world. In Glasgow a large congregation gathered in the Dundas Street Congregational Church. Many leading sportsmen were there and among them were two very famous men from Glasgow Rangers FC. The legendary Alan Morton read the lesson and one of the tributes was paid by the manager of Rangers, Bill Struth( who himself had been an athletics coach before becoming perhaps the greatest ever Rangers manager). Struth said of Eric Liddell,
“He deliberately sacrificed a fine chance of one Olympic title because of his religious convictions. He just as certainly put aside a career of brilliance and affluence to serve his master in the most practical of all forms of Christianity. In his work in China he created an opportunity for the talents with which he was so richly endowed; courage, determination, skill, endurance and self sacrifice, to be utilized to the full. Sport gave to Eric Liddell its highest honours; nevertheless it is true to say that he honoured sport rather than sport honouring him.
The details of the last few years of his life are not yet known to us, but we can be certain that under the most severe of all trials, he exhibited just those qualities which he showed in his sporting life. His life was perhaps a short one; but his work as he clearly saw it, and, as we believe, divinely inspired, carried out away from the applause of the crowd, will remain a source of inspiration to many.
In these days of exaggerated hero-worship and publicity for sports champions, Eric Liddell’s example reminds us to put things into their proper perspective. Sport to him was sport – not the be-all and end-all – and success in it did not prevent him from picking out the things spiritual from the things temporal. His was an example which must have helped others to make similar choices.”