The minister – who was Moderator at the recent General Assembly of the Free Church (Continuing) – will be spending his 10 days at the Games on a special mission.

Rev John Keddie, minister at Bracadale in Skye, will be there to promote his book, 'Running the Race', a biography of Scottish Olympic hero, Eric Liddell.

John Keddie is well qualified to tell this story - he is a Scot, a former first class athlete and rugby player, a Christian minister and a renowned athletics' historian.

Eric Liddell has been rated as Scotland's greatest athlete, and the life of the Olympic champion and rugby international has a continuing fascination.

His triumph in the Olympic 400m at Paris in 1924 was described as a rarity as so few Britons have won athletics' highest prize.

Says the book: "Liddell's triumph was as dominant as it was unexpected. Besides this, there is a remarkable sacrifice he made in leaving behind him fame and fortune to work in China as a Christian missionary. He was widely loved and admired, not least for his religious convictions in refusing to run in Olympic events on a Sunday."

The story was brilliantly captured in the Academy Award winning film, 'Chariots of Fire', which served to rekindle love and admiration for him for a new generation.

Mr Keddie, who assisted the writer of the screenplay for the film, told the 'Gazette': "We hope to be in Beijing from Monday until August 27. We will be at various events around Beijing – at the Games, the Team GB headquarters, Chinese bookshops in Beijing and Tianjin (promoting the Chinese version of the book), visits to Tientsin, where Eric Liddell taught between 1925 and 1937, and the camp at Weifang where his memorial is situated and where he was interned.

"We also expect to meet up with Seb Coe, and Prime Minister Gordon Brown, all Lord willing. Also, I will be at the Beijing International Christian Fellowship where I hope to have an opportunity to speak on the Lord's Day," said Mr Keddie, who has been minister in Bracadale since 1997.

Mr Keddie went on: " 'Running the Race' is a sporting biography that rightly places Eric Liddell's sporting life in the religious context in which it was lived. It has now been published in simplified Chinese and will be launched in China during the Olympics. China is, of course, the land where the 1924 Olympic 400 yards champion was born and subsequently died just five months before the end of the war."

The minister will visit the school in Tianjin where Eric Liddell taught and copies of 'Running the Race' will be presented to the school. Copies of the English version have been provided for GB athletes' use in Beijing. As well as book signings in Beijing, Mr Keddie will visit Weifang, Eric Liddell's grave and memorial monument.

Said Mr Keddie: "Getting such a 'western' book, containing so much religious and moral content, past the Communist party censors is rare indeed, but Liddell has always been held in the highest regard in China.

"Indeed some of China's Olympic literature lists the Scotsman as China's first Olympic champion, while his part in protecting his 'flock' from the Japanese invasion in 1937 has always been acknowledged by the Chinese.

"Following his death in 1945 - he died of a brain tumour – Liddell's remains were removed to the Mausoleum of Martyrs at Shih-Chia-Chuang, 150 miles south-west of Beijing, where China honours 700 selected individuals who made the ultimate sacrifice in the liberation of China from the Japanese.

"Eric Liddell loved China. He was born there into a missionary family, spent his early years there and returned to China to serve as a missionary as soon as he had completed his university education in Scotland and won his Olympic gold medal in Paris.

"Long after Paris he ran in all the local races, and I fancy he could have challenged for Olympic gold again in 1928 and 1932."

Mr Keddie went on: "But his life was on a different track by then, and he helped build the Mingyuan Athletics Stadium in Tianjin; some claim he used Chelsea's old Stamford Bridge, his favourite running venue, as a rough plan.

"At all times he was a rallying point for the local community when the Japanese invaded.

"Right to the end, he lived by selfless example and when he fell ill, and was offered repatriation by the Chinese, he insisted a pregnant woman take his place," said Mr Keddie.

"It is a remarkable story, from which ever standpoint Chinese readers choose to read it. There is plenty of sporting content, there is Liddell's Christian faith and life-long convictions and there is his love for China.

"The country has 1.5 billion inhabitants of which we believe there could be as many as 50 million Christians," added Mr Keddie.

The book is guaranteed to sell many copies during Mr Keddie's visit to the Olympics.