This is an I-Heart podcast.

Guaranteed Human.

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 Liddle. Although, as you're about to see, he probably wouldn't have minded it. Little 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 Liddle and Abraham's

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 Little himself

is so famous, is when he refused to compete in the 100-meter

heat because it took place on a Sunday.

As a devout Christian, Liddle 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.

...