Welcome back to another episode of Five Mints in Church History on this episode.

We are talking about Eric Ladell and the missionary family that he came from and that he had.

We of course know him from his feet in the Paris Olympics of 1924, where he won the

gold medal in the 400 meter race.

Not only did he win the gold medal, but he also set an Olympic record, and also it was

not the event that was indeed his specialty.

His specialty was the 100 meter, but we all know the story.

The early heats for that race were on a Sunday, the Sabbath, and his Scottish sensibilities

kept him from running on the Sabbath, and so he switched events, ran in the 400, and ran

right into fame with winning the gold medal.

What was a year later, 1925, that he went to China as a missionary?

When he went to China, he was actually going back to China.

He was born there in 1902.

He was the son of missionaries.

His father was James Dunlop Ladell, and he married Mary Redden on October 23, 1899.

He was a medical doctor, she was a nurse.

They were both serving as missionaries, and they got married, and within months of their

marriage, the boxer rebellion broke out in China.

This was a rebellion against foreign influence and foreign presence, and it definitely took

aim at missionaries.

Here they are newlyweds, and having to deal with the boxer rebellion, and during the

boxer rebellion, they have their first child, Eric's older brother, Robert Ladell.

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