Panel stitched by:
The Liberton Connection
Rosemary Leask
Sheila MacIsaac
Stitched in:
Edinburgh
The romantic days of amateur sport have no better exemplar than Eric Liddell. The Flying Scotsman won a gold medal for the 400 metres at the Paris Olympic Games of 1924, having refused, on religious grounds, to run on a Sunday in the heats for the 100 metres, his better event. His idiosyncratic running style, with his head flung back, his mouth wide open and his arms flailing, was remembered by all who saw him but it was his blistering speed that dazzled. His rival, Harold Abrahams, defended Liddell, saying, ‘People may shout their heads off about his appalling style. Well, let them. He gets there.’ The year before the Olympic Games, he had played rugby for Scotland. And, at the age of 23, he retired from sport so that he could become a missionary in China. Interned by the Japanese, Liddell died in 1945, probably of a brain tumour and malnourishment. But his achievements were never forgotten and they were immortalised in the Oscar-winning film, Chariots of Fire. When the great Scottish sprinter, Allan Wells, won Olympic gold in Moscow in 1980, he dedicated his race to the memory of Eric Liddell.
Panel stitched by:
The Liberton Connection
Rosemary Leask
Sheila MacIsaac
Stitched in:
Edinburgh