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Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. This is Lee Habib and this is Our American Stories, the show where America is the star and the American people coming to you from the city where the West begins, Fort Worth, Texas. Chariots of Fire was nominated for seven Academy Awards and won four. The film was distributed from the United States and was based on the true story of Eric Little.
Here to tell the story is Simon Whistler from the Today I Found Out YouTube channel. Let's take a listen. Imagine you dedicated your adult life to helping those less fortunate than yourself, that you spent your entire life trying to make the world a better place, and when you died, after sacrificing your own life for someone else's, all most people remembered you for was that you once ran really, really fast.
Well, you'd probably be pretty annoyed, right?
Well, that's exactly what happened to Eric Liddell. Although, as you're about to see, he probably wouldn't have minded. Liddle is mostly famous for being one of the subjects of the film Chariots of Fire, along with running buddy Harold Abrahams. If you're not familiar with the film or you just want to see us clumsily stumble our way through describing the plot, well, the film basically follows Liddell and Abrahams through their university years up to their respective individual gold medal wins at the Paris 1924 Olympics. The film is noted to be fairly true to actual events, give or take a few creative liberties.
For example, one of the film's most iconic scenes, and one of the reasons Liddell himself is so famous, is when he refused to compete in the 100-metre heat because it took place on a Sunday. As a devout Christian, Liddell steadfastly refused to run any race taking place on the Sabbath. In the film, this decision is made on Liddell's journey to Paris from Britain.
However, in real life, Liddell was well aware of when the race took place several months in advance and planned appropriately, mainly training for the 400-metre race. Liddell was harassed for months about his decision and was even reportedly grilled by the British Olympic Committee, particularly because the 100-metre was his best event and his best time in the 400-metre, 49.6%. Seconds had little chance of winning anything in the Olympics. Despite all of this, he did not back down on the issue. Long story short, when the 400-meter final rolled around, Liddell defied the odds and won the event with a world record performance, 47.6 seconds.
This performance is usually attributed to the fact that Liddell treated the race as a dead sprint, running all 400m as fast as he possibly could. To quote the man himself, when he was asked about his plan for victory, I run the first 200 meters as hard as I can. Then, for the second 200 meters, with God's help, I run harder.
Now, we don't want to downplay how impressive this achievement was, but it's childplay compared to what Lidl did next. We didn't mention it in the intro, but Liddell was originally born in China prior to being raised and educated in Scotland. In fact, due to this, he's often regarded as one of China's first Olympic champions on top of all the other stuff that he did. A year after his Olympic victory in 1925, Liddell went back to China to serve as a missionary like his parents before him had done. For a few years, Lidl served as both a science and sports teacher at a college in the Chinese city of Tianjin.
This is actually the same city where he was born. After 12 years, Liddle opted to become an ordained minister and then continued his work spreading the word of God in the Shaochang County as an evangelist and humanitarian. While serving there, Liddell rescued two wounded Chinese soldiers, despite the significant risk involved.
So you might be wondering now, well, why was this all so risky?
Well, that was because at the time, the Japanese were attacking China and Liddell ran the risk of being shot every time he walked out of a door. The situation was so dangerous that the British government advised him and other British citizens to leave the country. Liddell's family left, but he stayed to work at a mission set up to help the poor.
However, his luck eventually ran out when Tianjin fell under Japanese control. Little was sent to an internment camp in March of 1943. Though his situation was certainly dire, his spirits certainly didn't wane, and while some people in the camp selfishly hoarded their supplies, Lidl spent his time teaching children and sharing what he had. When a few rich businessmen convinced the guards to smuggle them in extra rations, Little's natural charisma was such that he was able to convince them to share the food with everyone, and he was the first port of call when any dispute in the camp needed to be settled. He even reportedly finally took part in a sporting event on a Sunday.
A fight broke out in a game, and to stop it, Little, who was well respected by all in the camp, stepped in and then, after things settled down, volunteered to referee the rest of the match. Given this wasn't about his own glory, but rather about keeping the peace, it presumably didn't conflict with his ideology. If you're not impressed yet with Liddle's integrity, here's the part that really shows you the kind of man he was. While in the camp, Lidl was ravaged by malnourishments and And ill health. It was later found that he had a brain tumour, but he knew nothing of this.
Despite this, when Winston Churchill managed to secure Liddell's freedom in a prisoner exchange, Liddell declined and instead offered his place to a pregnant woman who was also in the camp, saving not only her life, but also the life of her unborn child. Besides his declining health, this must have been a particularly difficult decision given that he had a wife and three daughters that he hadn't seen in well over a year. Indeed, one of them, Maureen, he never even got a chance to know. Much like most of his life's work, he didn't do this for any sort of fame or recognition. In fact, he didn't even mention this fact to his family in subsequent letters.
In his last letter to his wife, as his health deteriorated, he simply mentioned that he thought he was perhaps overworked. On the 21st of February, 1945, just a few months before the camp was liberated, Liddell died.
Now, after hearing about how Liddle spent a decade in China helping others, some of that time voluntarily in a war zone, and how he gave away his one chance at freedom for the life of a virtual stranger when he was in ill health and desperate need of a Doctor, perhaps the fact that he could move his legs slightly faster than other athletic humans for 400 meters isn't the thing we should all be remembering him for. It's true that athletic events have the power to inspire us and that this can be very important, but in the end, it's typically superficial. This is a rare case of an athlete doing something even more meaningful and no less inspirational. As Adult said when asked about walking away from athletics at the peak of his career to become a missionary, It's natural for a champ to think over all that sometimes, but I'm glad I'm at the work I'm engaged in now. A fellow's life counts for far more of this than the other.
We'll finish this off with a quote about Liddell from Langdon Gilkey, a fellow survivor of the camp that the two were prisoners in. Often in an evening, I would see him bent over a chessboard or a modelled boat while directing some sort of square dance, absorbed, weary, and interested, pouring all of himself into this effort to capture the imagination of these penned-up youths. He was overflowing with good humour and love for life and with enthusiasm and charm. It is rare indeed that a person has the good fortune to meet a saint, but he came as close to it as anyone I have ever known. And a terrific job on the production, editing, and storytelling by our own Greg Hengler.
And a special thanks to Simon Whistler from the Today I Found Out YouTube channel and its sister, the Brain Food Show podcast. The story behind the story of Eric Little. It's a story of service. It's a missionary tale. It's a God's story, as good as any we've ever told on this show.
The story of Eric Little here on Our American Stories. Lee Habib here, and I'm inviting you to help Our American Stories celebrate this country's 250th birthday coming soon. If you want to help inspire countless others to love America like we do, please consider making a tax-deductible donation to Our American Stories. Go to ouramericanstories.com and click the donate button. Any amount helps.
Go to ouramericanstories.com and give. Greatness is on the clock. The 2026 NFL draft presented by Bud White is underway. Catch all remaining rounds live from Pittsburgh on NFL Network, ESPN, and ABC. NFL Network is also streaming with NFL Plus.
It all continues tonight at 7 p.m. Eastern. Visit nfl.com slash draft for more information. Subscription required for NFL Plus. Visit plus.nfl.com for terms.
We've been duped, hoodwinked, conned for 50 years. The lawn care industry sold us toxins in a bag and made our yards more toxic than a bad relationship. Sunday helps you ditch the chemicals and feed your lawn the good stuff: soybean proteins, iron, seaweed, molasses, ingredients that get your soil giggling like an overserved mom at the block party. Sunday uses clean ingredients in real science for thicker, greener grass. Order today and get your custom Sunday yard plan for the season ahead.
Sunday for a smarter, healthier yard. GetSunday.com. Hot take. You can disagree with someone and not hate them. I know, really groundbreaking stuff.
But lately, that line seems blurry because hate is rising across communities in all kinds of ways, and Jewish communities are getting a lot of it right now. You don't have to agree with people, you just have to not be awful. The Blue Square is a simple way to say, I'm with you, and I don't tolerate hate of any kind. Go to bluesquarealliance.org, get a pin, share it, and stand up. This is Ashanti Plummer with a huge congratulations to the WNBA top draft pick, my friend and amazing podcaster, AZ Pudd, from all of us at iHeartWoman Sports and your friends at Geico.
We know your life's about to change. New city, new locker room, new home. It's a lot. But you're not doing it alone. You've got friends, family, and teammates.
You've got all of us at iHeart. And you've got Geico with you every step of the way. Congrats again, AZ. Listen to AZ's podcast, but around and find out wherever you listen to podcasts. This is an iHeart podcast.
Guaranteed human. Mm-hmm.
