Athlete Abebe Bikila won the first ever marathon Gold medal for Africa and set an unofficial world record after running barefoot at the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome. He then bested his own record at the subsequent 1964 Olympics in Tokyo to become the first athlete in the world to win back-to-back Olympic marathon titles.

He was little known outside of Ethiopia when he entered the 1960 Olympics to run the marathon barefoot on the cobblestones of the Appian Way. Tied for the lead for much of the race, he broke ahead in the last 1,000 metres and crossed the finish line in 2 hours 15 minutes 15.2 seconds. Four years later, he underwent an appendectomy a month before the Tokyo Olympics. Nevertheless, he won a second gold medal running the marathon - this time wearing shoes - in 2 hours 12 minutes 11.2 seconds.

He entered the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City but was forced to drop out of the marathon with a broken leg after 10 miles. Abebe Bikila died in 1973 at the age of 41 after a car accident in 1969 caused the lower part of his body to be paralysed.