Abebe Bikila Quotes

Abebe Bikila was a double Olympic marathon champion from Ethiopia. A stadium in Addis Ababa is named in his honor. Abebe Bikila was born on August 7, 1932, the day of the Los Angeles Olympic Marathon, in the village of Jato, located 9 kilometers outside the town of Mendida, Ethiopia. First African to win an Olympics medal. First ever to win the gold medal in two Olympic marathons. In 1969, Bikila was in a tragic car accident that left him paralyzed from the waist down for the remainder of his life. Bikila continued to be a national hero in Ethiopia, where many people made pilgrimages to visit him before his death in 1973. In the famous 1960 Olympics, Bikila ran barefoot over the cobblestones of the Appian Way in Rome, Italy, to break Czechoslovakian runner Emil Zátopek's 1952 marathon record by nearly eight minutes. Olympic runner, he set a new world record in the 1960 Olympics at 2:16:2 and then, in 1964 in Tokyo, he broke his own record by more than four minutes at 2:12:11, though still recovering.