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Flashback
1924 Paris Summer Games
The real `Chariots of Fire'
Hollywood took liberties with gold medalist's life
- BYLINE: Karen Rosen STAFF WRITER
- DATE: October 13, 1995
- PUBLICATION: The Atlanta Journal Constitution
- SECTION: SPORTS OLYMPICS
- PAGE: D/8
- The way it was: Calvin Coolidge takes office as president of the United States; Vladimir I. Lenin dies in the Soviet Union; Cecil B. de Mille's first "The Ten Commandments" is in theaters; the Four Horsemen of Notre Dame star in an upset of Army.arold was Jewish, he went to Cambridge and he won the 100 meters." The screenplay embellished the rest. Rather than anti-Semitism driving Abrahams, it was a desire to outdo his older brothers, one of whom was a 1912 Olympian. In one of the film's famous scenes, Abrahams sprints around a university quadrangle as a bell chimes. In real life, that was Lord Burghley, another athlete depicted in the film.
Abrahams didn't meet his wife before the 1924 Olympics; it was actually 1935. However, Abrahams truly did join forces with Sam Mussabini, a half-Arab, half-French cycling and billiards expert. Their training methods were ahead of their time.
For the 1924 Games, Abrahams was selected to run the 100, 200, 400 relay and long jump. An angry letter appearing a few days later in a London newspaper said this was too much for one man, and he shouldn't have to long jump. It was signed "A Famous International Athlete." The writer was Abrahams and he didn't have to long jump.
-Memorable moment: On the day of the 100-meter final, Abrahams said he felt "like a condemned man feels just before going to the scaffold." He remembered Mussabini's advice: "Only think of two things - the report of the pistol and the tape. When you hear the one, just run like hell till you break the other."
Abrahams won in Olympic record time of 10.6 seconds.
-Epilogue: "There was no arm waving or great joy; he just smiled," recalled Arthur Porritt, the bronze medalist from New Zealand. "On the other hand, I could sense that all his tension had gone. He'd achieved what he'd set out to do."
Because there were no medal ceremonies in Paris, Abrahams received his gold, plus a silver medal for the relay, in the mail. They arrived about a month later. The French had put insufficient stamps on the package, so Abrahams had to pay the excess postage.
Many years later, he revealed he had been using a special tonic, called Easton Syrup, which contained strychnine, a stimulant now banned. Had there been drug testing, Abrahams probably would have been disqualified.
As Porritt said, "The whole of his subsequent life depended on the fact that he'd won the Olympic 100 meters."
Abrahams retired in 1925 after injuring himself long jumping and walked with a limp the rest of his life. He stayed close to the sport as a radio commentator with the BBC, writer and administrator who always wore three stopwatches.
When he died in 1978, plans were in the works for a film about his Olympic experiences.
Photo: Harold Abrahams at the 1924 Games./ Associated Press Photo: Oscar-winning "Chariots of Fire" spotlighted runners Eric Liddell (played by Ian Charleson, third from left) and Harold Abrahams (Ben Cross, far right)./ Warner Bros.