Barefoot Olympic runner

[Alexandoy]

All eyes were on Ethiopian Abebe Bikila whenever he is on the tracks. Aside from his speed and endurance in the marathon, the public would never miss this slender guy who was running barefooted. He established a sort of record by winning the gold for the marathon in the 1960 Rome Olympics and repeated his feat in the Tokyo Olympics in 1964. Abebe Bikila, the barefoot runner, is considered a hero in his country.

 

[rz3300]

Well that is awesome and a great story. I hate how I have not heard of this before, and I have watched plenty of worthless Olympics coverage over the years and you would think that a good story like that would make its way through, but I guess not.

 

[Folk Artist]

I am not sure if I ever heard of Adebe Bikila before, but that name does sound familiar, and that was quite a feat to win two marathons in the Olympics in 1960 and 64. Now Zola Budd another barefoot runner- I remember watching her run against Mary Decker in the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. These two runners got tangled up and Mary Decker got knocked out of this race.

 

[NoviceNinja]

Wow, such a fantastic man. He believes that he's better off running without shoes and won. I can't imagine the number of blisters he suffered from his feet as we are not sure if the track field way back in 1960 was the same as it is today. They might be running on an uneven asphalt or something.

 

[Heatman]

It shows guts to do what the athlete did in the Olympics and it's already been documented in the pages of history as a result of the Valor, courage, determination and resilience shown to keep going on barefoot.