So many of Scotland’s sporting greats are from the last few decades.

Andy Murray. Chris Hoy. Josh Taylor.

And then, if you go a wee bit further back, there’s Kenny Dalglish, Jackie Stewart, Ken Buchanan and Liz McColgan.

But there’s one name that’s refused to be displaced on every list of Scotland’s greatest sporting athletes for a century; Eric Liddell.

This week will be the 100th anniversary of Liddell becoming Olympic champion.

The Edinburgh man won 400m gold at the 1924 Olympic Games in Paris in what remains one of the greatest feats in Scottish sporting history. So remarkable was Liddell’s story, it was immortalised in the 1981 film, Chariots of Fire.

Liddell was born in 1902 to Scottish parents and went to school in China until he was 5 before relocating to boarding school in London.

As a teenager, he excelled at rugby before becoming known as the fastest sprinter in Scotland during his time studying at Edinburgh University.

In 1922, he won his first of seven international caps for Scotland’s national rugby union team but it was two years later, as a sprinter, that his achievements would propel him into Scottish sporting folklore.

Having been selected for GB’s team for the Paris Games in 1924, Liddell was strongly fancied as one of the gold medal favourites in the 100m.

Yet........

© Herald Scotland