This Olympic Champion Died in a Prison Camp

The Olympics kick off next week, but the only thing people seem to be talking about is the Seine River.

They’re cleaning it, swimming in it. For the first time in Olympic history, the opening ceremonies won’t begin in a stadium, they’ll sail down the Seine. More than 300,000 spectators plan to line the banks of the Seine River in Paris and millions around the world will watch while Olympic athletes float by Paris’ most iconic monuments, but there are other parts of Paris you probably won’t see on TV.

While the city will host millions of visitors for the summer Olympics, it’s also home to thousands of refugees year-round. That’s just a fraction of more than half a million refugees living in France. Now, these numbers point to the conflicts and wars that are raging all over the world and driving people from their homes. Of course, that’s not really new. A century ago Paris hosted the Olympics in the shadow of two world wars, but that same year there was at least one Olympic event that shaped not only the 1924 games, but the life of one man whose greatest glory wasn’t winning a gold medal, but losing his life for the sake of the gospel and the joy of the nations, including some of the nations streaming into Paris next week.

A Secular Nation

Just a few oran des mans away from the wealthy neighborhoods around the Seine River, many immigrants live in impoverished conditions.

In the run-up to the Olympics, controversy has loomed over how hundreds of migrants and homeless people have been evicted from Paris suburbs to prepare the city for millions of visitors. Many of these immigrants are Muslim. In fact, France is home to the largest immigrant Muslim population in Europe. 1/3 of that population is concentrated in Paris, home to almost 2 million Muslims. Many came to France fleeing brutal conditions in their home countries, including Afghans, who fled after the Taliban takeover. While France has often been open to immigrants and refugees, sometimes that welcome has been met with real tension in the face of real tragedy.

In the aftermath of the 2015 Charlie Hebdo attacks, anger, fear, and resentment grew. That’s just one part of France’s complicated relationship to religion. France is a secular nation with a unique approach to secularism called Laïcité, but it’s basically the idea of separation of church and state. It’s not a form of state atheism or outlawing religion. Instead, Laïcité aims to keep religion out of public affairs. The French president isn’t sworn in on a Bible. Marriage isn’t legal if it’s only celebrated in a place of worship. And for the upcoming Olympics, France banned French athletes from wearing hijabs, something already banned in French public schools. Even beyond these laws, France has been a largely secular nation for a long time. Today, only about 1% of France identifies as evangelical Christians.

Trading Gold for Glory

That actually brings us back to the 1924 Olympic Games. The Paris games in 1924 were pretty low-key in comparison to today, but those games are still remembered a century later because of one athlete. If you’ve seen the movie Chariots of Fire, you might be familiar with the story of Eric Liddell. Liddell was a Scottish University student and runner favored to win the 100 meters, but there was one big hurdle. His heat was scheduled on a Sunday and Liddell believed that the Lord’s Day was reserved for worship and rest, and he couldn’t run in good conscience. Despite a lot of pressure, he decided to run a different race on a different day, and he didn’t just win, he set an Olympic record.

What was next for Liddell? After the Olympics, Liddell didn’t start training for the next games in Amsterdam. Instead, he headed to the mission field in China. Less than two decades later, the man who won gold in Paris lost his life for the sake of the gospel in China. It’s an amazing story, and this year’s Olympics are a perfect time to revisit it. Liddell’s story made us wonder what’s happening with the gospel today in countries Liddell new best, like Scotland, where he grew up, in France where he ran in the Olympics, in China where he lived and died as a missionary. We decided to head to those spots and tell those stories in a new narrative podcast called Glory Road. We’ll learn more about Liddell’s story and we’ll meet Scottish and French and Chinese Christians along the way, all in the run up to this year’s Olympics in Paris.

If you’ve enjoyed the stories we’ve told here on our YouTube channel, you’re not going to want to miss out on this podcast. It’s available now wherever you listen to podcasts, so check it out.

Glory Road, featuring Jamie Dean

I want to tell you a story about glory, but what if I told you the story begins with Olympic victory in Paris and ends with missionary death in China? Does that sound like glory? Well, it depends on where the road leads. Before we hit the road, we need to glance in the rearview mirror. That’ll help us map out where we’re headed, and what we see might surprise us. The Olympics are really religious.

My name is Jamie Dean. I’m Lead Writer for Radical, and I want to invite you on a journey. Think of it as a road trip to the Olympics and beyond, and here’s where we’re headed. This summer, Olympic athletes will compete on the same field in Paris that a Christian athlete named Eric Liddell made famous during the 1924 Olympic Games. The Scotsman won a remarkable Olympic race, and then he laid down a running career to take up a gospel calling that ended with his death in China. We’ll see that gospel glory sometimes looks more like losing than winning, at least at first, because God is at work in some of the places and some of the people we might least expect. Sometimes people might be easier to reach than we think, especially if we are willing to reach out.

From the team at Radical, this is Glory Road.