For the Glory

January 11, 2016
British sports hero Liddell (1902–1945), best known as the lead character in the film Chariots of Fire, returns to center stage in this in-depth biography. Hamilton, a sportswriter based in the U.K., gives plenty of attention to Liddell’s famous decision to forgo running the 100-meter race at the 1928 Olympics because he refused, due to religious reasons, to race on a Sunday. This story may be Liddell’s hallmark, but Hamilton presents it as just one in a long line of sacrifices that Liddell would make for his beliefs. By covering Liddell’s entire life, from his birth into a Christian missionary family and athletic career to his nearly 20 years of missionary work in China and his subsequent death there in an internment camp, Hamilton shows Liddell as more than a star who used the spotlight to call attention to his beliefs and himself: he was a truly selfless human being who gave everything he had to others. Hamilton seamlessly combines quotes from research documents, historical facts, and his own way with words (“Liddell had become a public speaker for God”), and his writing feels effortless in this inspiring story.