Born to Run, Born to Believe
Eric Liddell was born in Tianjin, China, in 1902, the son of Scottish missionaries. He was sent to boarding school in England at the age of five. He excelled at sport — rugby, cricket, and above all, running. By his early twenties, he was the fastest man in Britain.
At the 1924 Paris Olympics, Liddell refused to run the 100 metres because the heats were scheduled on a Sunday. He entered the 400 metres instead — a distance he had barely trained for — and won gold, setting a world record. The moment was immortalised in the film Chariots of Fire.
Back to China
What most people do not know is what Liddell did next. He returned to China as a missionary. He taught science and organised sports at a school in Tianjin. But increasingly, he felt drawn to the rural areas — the open farmland and villages of Shandong Province where people had almost no access to education or medical care.
Liddell spent years cycling and walking through the Chinese countryside, visiting villages, teaching, and helping wherever he could. Friends described him running through open fields in the early morning, praying as he ran. He told a colleague that running outdoors was when he felt closest to God — not as a competition, but as a conversation.
"God made me fast," Liddell said in one of his most quoted remarks. "And when I run, I feel his pleasure."
The Final Race
When Japan occupied northern China in 1943, Liddell was interned at Weifang Civilian Assembly Centre along with hundreds of other foreigners. Even in the camp, he organised sports for the children and gave away his few possessions. He died of a brain tumour in February 1945, five months before liberation.
The fields of China were the last free ground Eric Liddell ran on. His faith was forged on outdoor tracks and open roads, in the wind and the sun, with nothing between him and the sky.
What This Means for You
You do not need to be an Olympic athlete to understand what Liddell experienced. The feeling he described — God's pleasure during physical movement outdoors — is available to anyone who steps outside and moves. A walk, a jog, a bike ride through open country. The body was made to move, and there is something about moving through creation that opens a channel between you and the one who made it.