A Tokyo Sequel to 'Chariots of Fire'
When the starting gun goes off at the Tokyo Olympics women’s marathon next summer, one elite runner may be sitting on the sidelines—not because of her running time, but because of her religious beliefs. Beatie Deutsch, Israel’s national champion marathon runner, can’t compete if the marathon is held, as scheduled, on the Jewish Sabbath.
Her path to the Olympic Games could have been scripted for Hollywood. Ms. Deutsch, 30, ran her first marathon in 2016, when she was a mother of four. A year later, she ran her second marathon while seven months pregnant. In 2018 Ms. Deutsch won a race for the first time and in 2019 she won the Israeli national marathon championships, with a finishing time of 2 hours, 42 minutes, 18 seconds—three minutes faster than the Olympic qualifying standard at the time. Along the way she has overcome severe anemia and dealt with celiac disease.
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Ms. Deutsch is hard to miss on the track. In observance of Jewish law, she runs in a skirt that goes below her knees, sleeves that conceal her elbows, and a head scarf that covers her hair—the ensemble is a first for an elite marathoner. Ms. Deutsch doesn’t view her dedication to running as separate from her faith. “Our role in the world is to take the raw material God has given us and to use it to the fullest,” she says. “I have a talent for running.”
If this sounds familiar, you may have seen “Chariots of Fire” (1981), a fictionalized portrayal of a real British sprinter, Eric Liddell, a Christian missionary who refused to run the 100-yard dash at the 1924 Paris Olympics because a qualifying heat was scheduled for a Sunday. In the film as in real life, the International Olympic Committee forced Liddell to choose between faith and sport, and he was by turns pilloried and praised for picking faith.
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When the 2012 Summer Olympics in London coincided with Ramadan, the IOC made special arrangements for Muslim athletes—as it should have. As an IOC representative said at the time, “Every effort is being made to accommodate the needs of the Muslim athletes who will be participating in London.” These included predawn and post-sunset meals at all competition venues. No athlete of any faith should be excluded because of religious requirements or observances.
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Come next summer, I pray that Ms. Deutsch will be in Japan, standing at the starting line of the Olympic women’s marathon, in her trademark long skirt, long sleeves and head covering. It would be a crowning achievement for a world-class athlete, but more so for the Olympics itself, on the long and winding path toward welcoming people of all backgrounds into its vision of humankind united by sport.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-tokyo-sequel-to-chariots-of-fire-11604011712 (subscription)
By Akiva Shapiro who is a litigation partner at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP in New York and counsel to Beatie Deutsch