'Chariots of Fire' runner connects with IOC candidate Coe through England's Olympic history

Independent

18-03-2025

Only one Englishman who had a great Olympic career ever stood for the IOC presidency before Sebastian Coe, and Coe will try to win that job Thursday.
The previous candidate lost his election — in 1952 — yet his Olympic achievements spanned the 1920s to the 1980s, including 48 years as a member of the International Olympic Committee.
David Burghley ran at the 1924 Paris Olympics and was portrayed in the Oscar-winning movie of the games, Chariots of Fire, and in 1968 he presented medals to Tommie Smith and John Carlos seconds before their iconic raised-fist salutes on the podium in Mexico City.
Burghley also presented a gold medal to Coe at the 1980 Moscow Olympics when a then 23-year-old track star won the first of back-to-back titles in the 1,500 meters.
'He is a large figure in my life,' Coe said last week before traveling to Greece for the IOC election. 'When I was forging my career we met on a couple of occasions.'
The overlap between their respective careers is almost comprehensive.
Olympic champion runners. World record holders. Elected members of the British parliament. Organizers of a London Olympics. Presidents of track and field's world governing body.
IOC presidential candidate
Burghley ran to lead the Olympic body against Avery Brundage of the United States in 1952 in Helsinki. Brundage won a 30-17 vote to become the first, and still only, IOC leader from outside Europe.
In 1964, the English aristocrat who had inherited the title of 6th Marquess of Exeter challenged Brundage again in Rome though withdrew before a unanimous vote for the American.
Organizing an Olympics
Burghley had been elected to lead the world track body then known as the IAAF in 1946 and two years later had overseen organizing the first post-World War II Olympics in London.
When the Summer Games returned to London 66 years later, it was because Coe had led the bid to an unexpected win — edging out Paris — then led the project through the entire next seven years.
Coe said the commemorative Olympic torch he was given from London was later gifted to his predecessor.
'That sits in the Olympic museum at Burghley House,' he said. 'His family I'm very close to still.'
Olympic medals
The 16th century stately home about 80 miles (130 kilometers) north of London is home to Burghley's memorabilia including his 400-meter hurdles gold medal from the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics.
Burghley, the 'Leaping Lord,' had run in the 110 hurdles at Paris where his British teammates Harold Abrahams and Eric Liddell won the 100 and 400, respectively. Burghley was depicted in the 1981 film Chariots of Fire as the character Lord Lindsay.
In 1932, Burghley took silver for Britain in the 4x400 relay in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum where 52 years later Coe won his second 1,500 title.
Final lap
Their paths would cross at one more Olympic gathering after Moscow, at the 1981 Congress in West Germany, were Coe was among the pioneering athlete representatives.
They exchanged 'passing pleasantries,' Coe recalled last week, back then in Baden-Baden where Burghley was made an IOC honorary vice president weeks before his death aged 76.
Near the site of Ancient Olympia this week, Coe aims to ascend one step higher than perhaps the most eminent of English Olympians to go before him.
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