Abebe Bikila

Shambel Abebe Bikila (ሻምበል አበበ ቢቂላ; August 7, 1932 – October 25, 1973) was an Ethiopian marathon runner who was a back-to-back Olympic marathon champion.

Abebe Bikila was born on August 7, 1932, in the small community of Jato, then part of the Selale District of Shewa.

His birthday coincided with the 1932 Los Angeles Olympic marathon.

Abebe was the son of Wudinesh Beneberu and her second husband, Demissie.

During the Second Italo-Ethiopian War (1935–1937), his family was forced to move to the remote town of Gorro.

By then, Wudinesh had divorced Abebe's father and married Temtime Kefelew.

The family eventually moved back to Jato (or nearby Jirru), where they had a farm.

As a young boy, Abebe played gena, a traditional long-distance hockey game played with goalposts sometimes kilometres apart.

During the mid-1950s, Abebe ran 20 km from the hills of Sululta to Addis Ababa and back every day.

Onni Niskanen, a Swedish coach employed by the Ethiopian government to train the Imperial Guard, soon noticed him and began training him for the marathon.

Born in Shewa, Abebe moved to Addis Ababa around 1952 and joined the 5th Infantry Regiment of the Ethiopian Imperial Guard, an elite infantry division that safeguarded the emperor of Ethiopia.

Abebe served in the Kagnew Battalion during Korean War.

Enlisting as a soldier before his athletic career, he rose to the rank of shambel (captain).

Abebe participated in a total of sixteen marathons.

Around 1952, he joined the 5th Infantry Regiment of the Imperial Guard after moving to Addis Ababa the year before.

In 1956, Abebe finished second to Wami Biratu in the Ethiopian Armed Forces championship.

According to biographer Tim Judah, his entry in the Olympics was a "long planned operation" and not a last-minute decision, as was commonly thought.

He was the first Ethiopian Olympic gold medalist, winning his and Africa's first gold medal at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome while running barefoot.

Abebe was 27 when he married 15-year-old Yewebdar Wolde-Giorgis on March 16, 1960.

Although the marriage was arranged by his mother, Abebe was happy and they remained married for the rest of his life.

In July 1960, Abebe won his first marathon in Addis Ababa.

A month later he won again in Addis Ababa with a time of 2:21:23, which was faster than the existing Olympic record held by Emil Zátopek.

Niskanen entered Abebe Bikila and Abebe Wakgira in the marathon at the 1960 Rome Olympics, which would be run on September 10.

In Rome, Abebe purchased new running shoes, but they did not fit well and gave him blisters.

He placed second on his first marathon in Addis Ababa, won twelve other races, and finished fifth in the 1963 Boston Marathon.

At the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, he won his second gold medal.

In turn, he became the first athlete to successfully defend an Olympic marathon title.

In both victories, he ran in world record time.

In July 1967, he sustained the first of several sports-related leg injuries that prevented him from finishing his last two marathons.

Abebe was a pioneer in long-distance running.

Mamo Wolde, Juma Ikangaa, Tegla Loroupe, Paul Tergat, and Haile Gebrselassie—all recipients of the New York Road Runners' Abebe Bikila Award—are a few of the athletes who have followed in his footsteps to establish East Africa as a force in long-distance running.

On March 22, 1969, Abebe was paralysed due to a car accident.

He regained some upper-body mobility, but he never walked again.

While he was receiving medical treatment in England, Abebe competed in archery and table tennis at the 1970 Stoke Mandeville Games in London.

Those games were an early predecessor of the Paralympic Games.

He competed in both sports at a 1971 competition for disabled people in Norway and won its cross-country sleigh-riding event.

Abebe died at age 41 in 1973 of a cerebral haemorrhage related to his accident four years earlier.

He received a state funeral, and Emperor Haile Selassie declared a national day of mourning.

Many schools, venues, and events, including Abebe Bikila Stadium in Addis Ababa, are named after him.

He is the subject of biographies and films documenting his athletic career, and he is often featured in publications about the marathon and the Olympics.