Book Review: RUNNING WITH FIRE - The true story of Harold Abrahams by Mark Ryan

The more you delve into this meticulously researched and immensely well-crafted biography of Britain’s first 100m Olympic champion, you feel that the author Mark Ryan has successfully encapsulated the depth and complexity of a man driven by self-doubt and contradictions on and off the athletics track.

Most would be aware of the 1981 Oscar winning film Chariots of Fire, which depicts Harold Abrahams’ exploits at the 1924 Olympics and his relationship with fellow athlete Eric Liddell.

The film is a largely faithful portrayal of both men and their contrasting sporting philosophies. For Liddell, a Scot and devout Christian, racing was a celebration of the ability God had given him. He would honour God by running as fast he could.

For Abrahams, it was not God but the fear of failure that was behind his relentless pursuit for perfection. Contentiously, for that era, he employed a professional coach. Many felt that this was against the ‘Corinthian’ ethos of amateur sports. However, Ryan argues that this simply exemplified how ambitious and focused Abrahams was in his yearning for Olympic glory.

Born in February 1900 to Jewish parents, his faith would always play an integral part in his life. Abrahams endured anti-Semitism both at school and University.

Ryan believes that Abrahams did not suffer extensively from discrimination, but what Abrahams skilfully did was to turn any apparent slight to his advantage. If he needed anger, the fire in him to run, he would call upon any perceived anti-Semitism. He employed this mechanism in his head to win races including the Olympic final in Paris.

Abrahams’ success was all the more remarkable, due to his mental frailty that plagued him throughout his life. The source of his anxiety was his fear of marriage. Abrahams had to undergo psychotherapy before he was able to marry his fiancé, singer, Sybil Evers.

On his retirement from athletics, Abrahams became an influential administrator, broadcaster and journalist. He modernised athletic rules and practices, fought tirelessly to promote women’s athletics and led an unremitting campaign to increase BBC coverage of the sport. Ryan maintains that without Abrahams’ zeal, athletics would not be as popular as it is today.

Although an innovator as an athlete, who hired himself a professional coach, Abrahams was surprisingly opposed to any sort of professionalism within athletics. As one disgruntled coach said of him: “He was a poacher turned gamekeeper.”

The book details Abrahams’ role in assisting Roger Bannister to break the 4-minute mile. Abrahams was one of the timekeepers when Bannister ran the historic race in May 1954.

The author also exposes the way Abrahams was abysmally treated by the BBC who refused to send him to the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Being a Jew they were concerned this would offend the Nazis. Abrahams went independently and returned with his journalistic reputation enhanced.

Mark Ryan’s enthralling and eloquent insight into a man who literally gave his body, mind and soul to the advancement of British athletics is a genuine must read for any sporting devotee.