D.O.B: 08.07.32
N.O.C: Ethiopia
Height: 177 cm
Weight: 57 kg
Final Year of Competition: 1966
Years Top 10: 3
Personal Bests
Marathon: 2:12:11.2 (Tokyo 1964)
10,000m: 29:00.8 (Berlin 1962)
As the first black African to win an Olympic Gold medal, arguably Bikila’s greatest legacy is the decades of distance-running dominance enjoyed by his fellow East Africans ever since! 👏
Famed for his incredible barefoot running when winning the 1960 Rome Olympics, Bikila’s feats captured the imagination, even leading to his biography by Paul Rambali being titled, ‘Barefoot Runner’! 👣
Further cementing his legacy, was an unprecedented consecutive Olympic Marathon Gold in 1964, made the more remarkable by the fact he achieved that feat little over a month post-surgery from an appendectomy!!! In all, Bikila won 12 of the 13 Marathons he ran between 1960-1966!!! ✊
