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The fire to win

Sprinting, by H. M. Abrahams. Printed in London by Renwick of Otley, 1925.

Close up of the name 'Harold M. Abrahams' in gold on a green background

 

Harold Abrahams (1899鈥1978, matriculated 1919) is one of 精东影业 College鈥檚 greatest sportspeople. His gold medal win in the 100m race at the 1924 Paris Olympics, famously portrayed in the film Chariots of Fire, is the inspiration for this exhibition.

While Abrahams was still a schoolboy, his older brother Sidney had competed in the 1906 and 1912 Olympics. At the end of Harold鈥檚 school career at Repton, he won the public schools鈥 100 yard and long jump championships,1 and his sporting achievements in his first year at Cambridge ensured he was selected for the 1920 Olympic team. He competed in the 100m and 200m sprints and the long jump, but did not reach any final.

Six months before the Paris Olympics, Abrahams began a new training regime with the French Arab coach Sam Mussabini, now focusing on the 100m.2 (Among the technical points they worked on was an innovative finish, in which Abrahams would drop his chest forwards onto the tape.)3 At the Games he reached the final and took the gold medal, equalling the Olympic record with a time rounded up to 10.6 seconds. He went on to compete in the 200m, where he finished last, and in the 4脳100m relay, where the British team took the silver medal.

Abrahams retired from athletics in only 1925, after he injured a leg in an attempt to beat his own English long jump record.4 He shared his running knowledge with a wide audience in this book of the same year, Sprinting. At the same time he was beginning a long career as a sports administrator, journalist, and broadcast commentator, which led him into controversy around the 1936 Olympics in Nazi Germany. Abrahams, a Jew, argued against a boycott, taking the position of the British government against that of Jewish institutions such as the Board of Deputies and the Jewish Chronicle, and himself attended for the BBC.5

The acclaimed 1981 film Chariots of Fire tells the story of Abrahams鈥 1924 effort in parallel with that of his teammate Eric Liddell (who took the gold medal in the 400m and the bronze in the 200m). Another Caian among Abrahams鈥 teammates is also portrayed in the film: Hyla Stallard (1901鈥1973, matriculated 1919), who took the bronze medal in the 1500m.

Great aquatic days << The fire to win >> Back pages: the Archive

  1. David Dee, , International Journal of the History of Sport 29, no. 6 (2012): 874.
  2. Mark Ryan, Running with Fire (London: Robson, 2012), 104.
  3. Norris McWhirter, 鈥, in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004鈥2024), online.
  4. McWhirter, 鈥楢brahams鈥, online.
  5. Dee, 鈥 鈥淭oo Semitic?鈥 鈥, 876鈥878.

Gallery

The cover of a 20th-century printed book, with yellow text on green cloth, the title sharply angled.
The flyleaf in a 20th-century book, with a handwritten inscription.
A portrait photograph in a 20th-century printed book, showing a young man in formal dress, in three-quarters profile.
The title page in a 20th-century printed book.
The foreword to a 20th-century printed book.
A page from a 20th-century printed book, filled with a photograph of Abrahams in his sprint starting position, viewed from the front.
A page in a 20th-century printed book, filled with a photograph of Abrahams in his sprint starting position, viewed from the side.
A page in a 20th-century printed book, filled with a photograph of Abrahams at the end of his first sprint stride.
Page 51 in a 20th-century printed book.
An advertisement for running shoes in a 20th-century printed book.