Abebe Bikila, Date of Birth, Date of Death

    

Abebe Bikila

Ethiopian double Olympic marathon champion

Date of Birth: 07-Aug-1932

Date of Death: 25-Oct-1973

Profession: long-distance runner, athletics competitor, marathon runner

Nationality: Ethiopia

Zodiac Sign: Leo


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About Abebe Bikila

  • Abebe Bikila (Amharic: ??? ???; August 7, 1932 – October 25, 1973) was an Ethiopian marathon runner who was a back-to-back Olympic marathon champion.
  • He won the first gold medal at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome while running barefoot and the second gold medal at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.
  • He is the first sub-Saharan African Olympic gold medallist.
  • At Tokyo in 1964, Abebe became the first athlete to successfully defend an Olympic marathon title.
  • He was a member of the Ethiopian Imperial Guard, an elite infantry division that safeguarded the Emperor of Ethiopia.
  • Enlisting as a soldier before his athletic career, he rose to the rank of shambel (captain).
  • In Ethiopia, Abebe is formally known as Shambel Abebe Bikila (Amharic: ???? ??? ???). He 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.
  • Abebe participated in a total of sixteen marathons, winning twelve and finishing fifth in the 1963 Boston Marathon.
  • In July 1967, he sustained the first of several sports-related leg injuries that prevented him from finishing his last two marathons. On March 22, 1969, Abebe was paralysed as a result of a car accident.
  • Although he regained some upper-body mobility, 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 the disabled in Norway and won its cross-country sleigh-riding event. Abebe died at age 41 on October 25, 1973, of a cerebral hemorrhage 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.
  • Abebe is the subject of biographies and films documenting his athletic career, and he is often featured in publications about the marathon and the Olympics.

Read more at Wikipedia

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