Abebe Bikila
Abebe Bikila (7 August 1932 - 25 October 1973) was a double Olympic marathon champion from Ethiopia. He was the first black African Olympian to win a gold medal representing his own country.[1] He is most famous for the gold medal he won in the 1960 Summer Olympics at Rome. He won the marathon while running barefoot.[2] He won his second Gold medal in the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo.[3] This made him the first man ever to win two Olympic marathons.[3] He competed in the 1968 Summer Olympics. Bikila was injured in an automobile accident in 1970.[4] It left him a paraplegic. He died at the age of forty-one on 23 October 1973. This was due to complications from his earlier accident.[4] A stadium in Addis Ababa is named after him.
Abebe Bikila Media
- Abebe Bikila with wife and son.jpg
Abebe with wife Yewebdar and one of their children
- Abebe Bikila - Star of Ethiopia.jpg
Emperor Haile Selassie confers the Star of Ethiopia on Abebe after his victory in the Olympic marathon, 1960.
- 1964 Summer Olympics – Men's marathon.webm
Universal Newsreel footage of the 1964 Olympic Men's marathon
- Abebe Bikira running on the Koshu Kaido.jpg
Abebe Bikila running on the Koshu Kaido
Abebe Bikila
- Plaque celebrating Abebe Bikila on Via di San Gregorio.jpg
Plaque commemorating Abebe on the Via di San Gregorio in Rome
- Abebe Bikila Bridge in Ladispoli.jpg
Abebe Bikila Bridge in Ladispoli
- FiveFingers Bikila outer side 2.jpg
Vibram FiveFingers Bikila shoes, outer side (facing away from other foot).
- COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Het leven van marathonloper Abebe Bekila in 12 afleveringen TMnr 5956-7.jpg
Folk art depicting Abebe's life
Abebe (#11), following Bertie Messitt (#58), Bakir Benaïssa, Arthur Keily (#46), Aurèle Vandendriessche (#36), and Rhadi Ben Abdesselam (#185)
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References
- ↑ Edward Seldon Sears, Running Through the Ages (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2001), p. 296
- ↑ Michael Hurley, World's Greatest Olympians (Chicago, Il: Heinemann Library, 2012), p. 10
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Edward Seldon Sears, Running Through the Ages (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2001), p. 297
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Dictionary of African Biography, eds. Emmanuel Kwaku Akyeampong; Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Vol I (Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2012), p. 42
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