Abebe Bikila the man who changed the marathon Forever.

The yugoslavian legend of the Marathon Franjho Mihalic was sure he was going to upgrade his silver medal from the 1956 olympics to a gold in Rome four years later. Little did he know that the 28 year old barefooted Ethiopian would disturb the flow of the olympic marathon.

 Since the olympic Games started in 1896 the marathon medals were  going mostly to North America and Europe.  By 1956, 39 of the 45 possible medals were all won by the USA and european Nations.
In 1960, at the olympic games Abebe Bikila a 28 year old young man who had spent most of his teen life as a shepherd, decided to enter the Marathon event. He had began running just four years prior as a simple hobby. Therefore when he showed up at the starting line ,maybe even he was not so optimistic about his chances. What happened afterwards shocked the world, he not only won the olympic race,but he also managed to break the world record.

It's unbelievable that he ran through the ancient Roman ruins without shoes especially in a marathon race that was ran in the night in an effort to avoid the excess heat. The damage to his feet had to be extensive.  Bikila along with the runner who finished in second, Rhadi Ben Abdesselam from Morroco ignited the flame in african runners that seem unstoppable at the moment.

His legacy and reach went further after he became the first to win a back to back Olympic marathon title and set a new world record of 2 hours and 12 minutes. This time in shoes and not in as bad surface as he ran on in Rome. He would have wanted to win a third consecutive marathon at mexico in 1968 but there his career had a most unfortunate ending, he broke one of his legs and had to be pulled from the race.
It took a few years afterwards for africans to start taking control of the event not only at the olympics, but at every Major marathon, like the Boston Marathon, New york marathon and so on.

Tales of how Abebe Bikila inspired runners were told by the elites including the likes Haile Gelabrasse. He not only inspired the future of African distance running , but all inspiring runners. The call of the marathon was once thought of as a call only for the best and most brave of athletes, but he along with Emil Zatopek changed the approach to the Marathon.   This is partly why we see millions of runners around the world participating in marathons worldwide, despite not being the most gifted of athletes or Hobby runners.

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Abebe Bikile Who finally cemented his legacy at the Tokyo Olympics in 1964 with a back to back olympic win, still inspire many looking forward to competing in tokyo 56 years.