Abebe Bikila wins marathon in 1960 Rome Olympics... barefoot.

50 years ago in the 1960 Olympics in Rome, Abebe Bikila won the marathon event, 24 years after Mussolini had conquered his homeland of Ethiopia. He won in world record time (2:15:16) & becoming the first African to win an Olympic medal. Not only that, he did it barefoot (after they couldn't find a pair of shoes that fit him comfortably)! Mind you a lot of the streets here in Rome are cobblestone & since it was so hot the race was started at sunset & ended in the dark of night lit by Roman soldiers holding torches. He was a last minute replacement for the Ethiopian team & didn't even start running until he was 24. Evidently a few KM from the finish, Bikila saw the Obelisk of Axum, which invading Italian troops stole from Ethiopia during WWII (& only restored to Ethiopia in 2008). At this point Bikila was neck & neck with the Moroccan Rhadi, but wen he saw the obelisk he surged & Rhadi couldn't keep up.

Even though he had an appendectomy 40 days before the event & wasn't able to train or expected to even run it, he went on to win again in the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo, this time with shoes, becoming the first person to repeat gold in the marathon.

You might wonder what he could've done with "modern" training & equipment, but then again this also demonstrates the importance of natural talent & determination. The biomechanical efficiency of his stride is simply awe-inspiring

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[Evi1M4chine]

Funny how people act like it’s not normal to run barefoot. When we’re born without shoes and our feet have specifically evolved over millions of years to do exactly this.

[yosef61]

this was an amazing achievement for habesba people

[InfoDav]

easier than you think

[Melaku Haile]

Proud Ethiopian

[Cesar Suarez]

OMG....sdsd



[lMobiuscidl]

Not only that, today 99% of the people is miseducating their feet due to the abuse of shoe using. Wouldnt be bad if people decided to go to the park once a week and they did some barefoot exercises walking, at least, on the grass.

[Alexandre Marc]

ok you should try to run 42 km on croncrete barefoot

[Dezagnation]

Omg

[ethiish]

Proud Ethiopian, first black man who won Olympic maraton

[ovbcerna]

Que grande

[ARWguy26]

I choose to do a report on this guy because he ran a marathon barefoot and in cross country I ran a mere 2 miles barefoot and got a stress fracture that made me miss the season. who knew?

[kirkey99]

Pff..all other competitors were whities. Who COULDN'T win that one!?