One of the all-time great sports movies, in my view, is “Chariots of Fire.” The 1981 Best Picture Oscar winner is a fact-based story of two British track athletes in the 1924 Olympics.
Eric Liddell runs for the glory of God and Harold Abrahams, an English Jew, runs to overcome prejudice.
There are several outstanding story lines and messages in the movie.
We each run our race — life or whatever athletic endeavor — in our own way. No way is better than the other.
Liddell talks following a race in his homeland, Scotland.
“And where does the power come from, to see the race to its end? From within.” He talked of committing to the love of Christ, “then that is how you run a straight race.”
Abrahams speaks about his running: “It’s a compulsion with me, a weapon I can use.” Against what, he is asked, “Being Jewish, I suppose.”
“You’re not serious. People aren’t like that, people don’t care. Can it be as bad as all that?” Liddell says.
Abrahams responds, “You’re not Jewish, or you wouldn’t have had to ask.”
Abrahams is in the 100-meter final against heavily favored Americans. He told his best friend, “I’ve known the fear of losing but now I am almost too frightened to win.”
Win he did. Liddell won the 100-meter race, beating the American runners.
This weekend Iola High’s Mustang wrestlers and next week the Fillies and the Mustangs along with area high school basketball teams enter a race — postseason play.
Find a way to see the race to its end — your way. Go out with all your heart and strength.
In the movie, Liddell used a passage from the Bible that is one dear to my mother and to me.
This is how I see the race to the end:
“But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.” Isaiah 40:31.
