Abebe Bikila

Born in Shewa in 1932, Abebe moved to Addis Ababa around 1952 and joined the Ethiopian Imperial Guard, an elite unit that protected the emperor. He served in the Korean War before his running career began. In sixteen marathons, he won twelve, placed second in his first, and fifth at Boston in 1963. At the 1960 Rome Olympics, running without shoes, he became Ethiopia's first gold medalist. Four years later in Tokyo, he broke his own record and became the first to successfully defend an Olympic marathon title. Leg injuries in 1967 began to slow him, but his legacy had already reshaped long-distance running - East Africa became a dynasty in his wake. In March 1969, a car accident left him paralyzed from the waist down. He competed in archery, table tennis, and cross-country sleigh-riding at early Paralympic events, winning in Norway in 1971. He died in 1973 at forty-one from a cerebral hemorrhage tied to the crash, and Ethiopia gave him a state funeral with a national day of mourning.