Early life Abebe Bikila was born on August 7, 1932, in the small community of Jato, then part of the Selale District of
Shewa. His birthday coincided with the
1932 Los Angeles Olympic marathon. Abebe was the son of Wudinesh Beneberu and her second husband, Demissie. During the
Second Italo-Ethiopian War (1935–1937), his family was forced to move to the remote town of Gorro. By then, Wudinesh had divorced Abebe's father and married Temtime Kefelew. During the mid-1950s, Abebe ran from the hills of
Sululta to Addis Ababa and back every day. In 1956, Abebe finished second to Wami Biratu in the
Ethiopian Armed Forces championship. According to biographer
Tim Judah, his entry in the Olympics was a "long planned operation" and not a last-minute decision, as was commonly thought. Abebe was 27 when he married 15-year-old Yewebdar Wolde-Giorgis on March 16, 1960. Although the marriage was arranged by his mother, Abebe was happy Niskanen entered Abebe Bikila and
Abebe Wakgira in the
marathon at the
1960 Rome Olympics, which would be run on September 10. In Rome, Abebe purchased new running shoes, but they did not fit well and gave him blisters. Due to Rome's blistering heat, the race started in late-afternoon at the foot of the
Capitoline Hill staircase and finished at night at the
Arch of Constantine, just outside the
Colosseum. The course twice passed
Piazza di Porta Capena, where the
Obelisk of Axum was then located. File:Abebe Bikila 1960 Olympics.jpg|alt=The 1960 Olympic marathon's lead pack, near the 10 km (6 mi) mark|Abebe (#11), following
Bertie Messitt (#58),
Bakir Benaïssa,
Arthur Keily (#46),
Aurèle Vandendriessche (#36), and
Rhadi Ben Abdesselam (#185) File:Abebe Bikila sprints away from Rhadi Ben Abdesselam.jpg|alt=Abebe leading Rhadi ben Abdesselam behind him|Moving away from Ben Abdesselam File:Abebe Bikila maratona olimpica Roma 1960.jpg|alt=Abebe crossing the finish line, barefoot with hands raised, an Italian official in the background with a crowd of spectators behind a fence|Crossing the finish line File:Abebe Bikila triumphant 1960.jpg|alt=Abebe lifted above a crowd in celebration|Celebrating outside the Colosseum Between and , the lead changed hands several times. By about , however, Abebe and Ben Abdesselam moved away from the rest of the pack. Trailing by about two minutes at the mark were
New Zealand's
Barry Magee, who was to finish third in 2:17:18.2 Abebe and Ben Abdesselam remained together until the last . Nearing the obelisk again, Abebe sprinted to the finish. In the early-evening darkness, his path along the
Appian Way was lined with Italian soldiers holding torches. and later said that he could have run another .
1960–1964 to Abebe in the Green Salon of the emperor's palace.|thumb|Emperor
Haile Selassie confers the
Star of Ethiopia on Abebe after his victory in the Olympic marathon, 1960. Abebe returned to his homeland as a hero. He was greeted by a large crowd, many dignitaries and the commander of the Imperial Guard, Brigadier-General
Mengistu Neway. Abebe was paraded through the streets of Addis Ababa along a procession route lined with thousands of people and presented to
Emperor Haile Selassie. The Emperor awarded him the
Star of Ethiopia and promoted him to the rank of
asiraleqa (corporal). He was given the use of a chauffeur-driven
Volkswagen Beetle (since he did not yet know how to drive) and home, both owned by the guard. On December 13, 1960, while Haile Selassie was on a state visit to Brazil, Imperial Guard forces led by
Mengistu Neway began
an unsuccessful coup and briefly proclaimed Selassie's eldest son
Asfaw Wossen Taffari emperor. Although Abebe was not directly involved, he was briefly arrested and questioned. Mengistu was later hanged, and his forces (which included many members of the Imperial Guard) were killed in the fighting, arrested or fled. In the 1961 Athens Classical Marathon, Abebe again won while running barefoot. This was the second and last event in which he competed barefooted. The same year he won the marathons in
Osaka and
Košice. While in Japan, he was approached by a Japanese shoe company,
Onitsuka Tiger, with the possibility of wearing its shoes; they were informed by Niskanen that Abebe had "other commitments". Kihachiro Onitsuka suspected that Abebe had a secret sponsorship deal with
Puma, in spite of the now-abandoned
rules against such deals. Abebe ran the 1963
Boston Marathon—which was between his Olympic wins in 1960 and 1964—and finished fifth in 2:24:43. This was the only time in his competitive career that he completed an international marathon without winning. He and countryman
Mamo Wolde, who finished 12th, had run together on record pace for 18 miles, until cold winds and the hills in
Newton caused both to fall back. The race was won by Belgium's
Aurele Vandendriessche in a course record 2:18:58. Abebe returned to Ethiopia and did not compete in another marathon until 1964 in Addis Ababa. He won that race in a time of 2:23:14.8. He was brought to the hospital and diagnosed with acute
appendicitis, Back on his feet in a few days, Abebe left the hospital within a week. He entered the October 21
marathon wearing Puma shoes. This was in contrast to the previous Olympics in Rome, where he ran barefoot. At , he was in third place behind
Ron Clarke of Australia—who had been upset by
Billy Mills in the 10,000 meters—and
Jim Hogan of Ireland. Hogan soon dropped out, exhausted, leaving only Tsuburaya three minutes behind Abebe by the mark. Abebe entered the Olympic stadium alone, to the cheers of 75,000 spectators. Abebe finished with a time of 2:12:11.2, Tsuburaya was third, a few seconds behind Heatley. Abebe did not appear exhausted after the finish, and he again performed a routine of
calisthenics, As of the
2024 Olympic marathon in Paris, Abebe,
Waldemar Cierpinski, and
Eliud Kipchoge are the only athletes to have won two gold medals in the event, and they all did it back-to-back. The Emperor promoted him to the
commissioned-officer rank of
metoaleqa (
lieutenant).
1965–1968 On April 21, 1965, as part of the opening ceremonies for the second season of the
1964–1965 New York World's Fair, Abebe and fellow athlete and Imperial Guardsman Mamo Wolde, ran a ceremonial half-marathon from the
Arsenal in
Central Park (at 64th Street and
Fifth Avenue in
Manhattan) to the
Singer Bowl at the fair. They carried a parchment scroll with greetings from
Haile Selassie. The following month, Abebe returned to
Japan and won his second
Mainichi Marathon, held in
Shiga Prefecture. The following year, Abebe did not finish the Zarautz International Marathon in July 1967. He had injured his
hamstring, an injury from which he would never recover. Abebe had begun to limp, the German government refused to accept payment for the medical services. Abebe returned in time to join the rest of the
Ethiopian Olympic team training in
Asmara, which has an altitude () and climate similar to
Mexico City (the host of the next Olympic Games). Seeking a third consecutive gold medal, Abebe entered the October 20
Olympic marathon with Mamo Wolde and
Gebru Merawi. Symbolically, he was issued bib number 1 for the race. A week before the race, Abebe developed pain in his left leg. Doctors discovered a fracture in his
fibula, and he was advised to stay off his feet until the day of the race. Abebe had to drop out of the race after approximately and Mamo Wolde won in 2:20:26.4. This was Abebe's last marathon appearance.
Accident and death On the night of March 22, 1969, Abebe lost control of his Volkswagen Beetle and it overturned, trapping him inside. According to biographer Tim Judah, he may have been drinking. Judah quotes Abebe's account of the accident from the biography by his daughter, Tsige Abebe, that he tried "to avoid a fast, oncoming car". Judah wrote that it was difficult to know for certain what happened. On March 29 Abebe was transferred to
Stoke Mandeville Hospital in
England, where he spent eight months receiving treatment. He was visited by
Queen Elizabeth II and received get-well cards from all over the world. Although Abebe could not move his head at first, his condition eventually improved to
paraplegia, regaining the use of his arms. In 1970, Abebe began training for wheelchair-athlete archery competitions. In July, he competed in
archery and
table tennis at the
Stoke Mandeville Wheelchair Games in London. The following April, Abebe participated in games for disabled people in Norway. Although he had been invited as a guest, he competed in archery and table tennis and defeated a field of sixteen in cross-country
sled dog racing with a time of 1:16:17. Abebe was invited to the
1972 Summer Olympics in Munich as a special guest, and received a standing ovation during the opening ceremony. finishing third behind
Frank Shorter of the United States and
Karel Lismont of Belgium. After Shorter received his gold medal, he shook Abebe's hand. He was buried with
full military honours; his
state funeral was attended by an estimated 65,000 people including Emperor Haile Selassie, who proclaimed a day of mourning for the country's national hero. Abebe is interred in a tomb with a bronze statue at Saint Joseph Church in Addis Ababa. == Legacy ==