award for his performance in restoring order to the city of New York after the devastating attack on the World Trade Center on September 11th.
Abebe Bikila was born in the small village of Jato outside of the Ethiopian town of Mendida and at an early age in an effort to provide for his family would seek a Job at the imperial palace as a palace guard under Emperor Haile Selassie. It was during his tenure as a guard at the palace that Bikila was discovered when the Emperor commissioned a Swede coach Major Onni Niskanen to train some of the guards to take part in the Olympics.
In 1960 Abebe Bikila was selected to represent Ethiopia after another Athlete Wami Biratu who was selected to take part could not due to an injury and Bikila would then be summoned along with an- other name that would forever be associated with him in Mamo Wolde to run in the Marathon. Bikila would perform what most in modern times called a ridiculous feat by running barefooted throughout a race of 26.2 miles. It was such a sensational feat that the whole world was just wrapped in awe at the concept of a man running that distance without any footwear and not only was he not injured but ended up winning the Gold Medal in the event, the very first Gold Medal for a Black African Athlete in the Modern Olympics.
He would return to the Olympics again in 1964 in Tokyo Japan and win the Marathon again; the first time for any athlete to have done that in the Marathon in winning back to back Gold Medals in the Olympic Games. He would return to Ethiopia to a massive Hero’s welcome ordered by the Emperor. The streets were lined up and the city was packed with grateful and Proud Ethiopians.
In 1969 Bikila would end up in a life changing accident that left him a paraplegic and never to race again. While driving his New Volkwagen Beetle he would come across a crowd of students who were protesting in the Ethiopian capital and to avoid running into them he would swerve and end up in a ditch with major life altering injuries.
On the 23 October 1973, few years after his accident Abebe Bikila died in Addis Ababa at the age of 41 from a cerebral hemorrhage from complications of his injuries from his car accident years back.
Bikila is honored as mentioned above by an Award the Abebe Bikila Award named after him by the New York Road Runners Club and there is also a Stadium named after him in Ethiopia and the big- gest legacy of Abebe is the factory of distance runners that come out of Ethiopia which he inspired. Finally we here at African Sports Media Network do declare Abebe Bikila the Greatest African Ath- lete that ever walked the Face of mother Africa and this Earth.
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