Abebe Bikila became first Black African Olympic gold medalist - September 10, 1960

On this day in 1960, Ethiopian marathon runner Abebe Bikila set a world record for the marathon at the Olympics in Rome. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This Day in History Class. It's a production of I
Heart Radio. Welcome to This Day in History Class, where
we bring you a new tip bit from history every day.
Today is September. The day was September nineteen sixty. Ethiopian

(00:30):
marathon runner Abebe Bikola became the first black African to
win a gold medal in the Olympics. Bikola was a
private in the Army and in the bodyguard of High
Lie Selassie, the Emperor of Ethiopia. When Bikola was training,
Swedish coach Ony Niskanen recognized his running skill. He would

(00:51):
often run twenty miles and do repeated sprints of and
he would often run those distances barefoot. Bikola won Ethiopia's
Olympic selection marathon in Addis Ababa in July of nineteen
sixty at high altitude. The next month, he won another
marathon with a time of two hours twenty one minutes

(01:11):
in twenty three seconds. Niskanen was convinced that Bikola could
win at the Olympics. He entered Bikola in the nineteen
sixty Olympics in Rome. The September ten marathon was staged
to pass a bunch of Roman landmarks. The course would
begin in the evening at the Campidogo on Capitoline Hill
and meander through Rome. Bikola chose to run barefoot, as

(01:35):
that is how he was used to running and the
running shoes he came to Rome with we're causing blisters.
Soldiers held torches to light the path along the Appian Way.
By the sixteenth mile of the marathon, Vikola and Moroccan
Roddy bin Abdessalam were tied for the lead, but Bikola
had saved his surge for the last mile or so

(01:56):
of the race, as he had discussed with his coach.
The Obelisk of Axim was an old Ethiopian artifact stolen
by invading Italian troops during World War Two. As he
passed the obelisk a second time, he made it out
in front of Roddy. The marathon finished at the illuminated
Arch of Constantine, just outside the coliseum. Bikola won the

(02:20):
marathon with a world record of two hours, fifteen minutes
in sixteen point two seconds. The next year, Bikolo won
marathons in Greece, Japan, and Czechoslovakia. After he finished fifth
in the Boston Marathon. In nineteen sixty three, he returned
to the army in Ethiopia, but by nineteen sixty four,

(02:42):
Bikolo was back at the Olympics after running two hours
sixteen minutes in eighteen seconds at altitude in the Olympic
Trials in Oddis Ababa. Just six weeks before the Tokyo Olympics,
he had surgery for appendicitis. Though he was not expected
to compete, he joined the marathon anyway, and he won

(03:03):
the Olympic gold medal again with a record breaking time
of two hours, twelve minutes and eleven point two seconds.
Bikola continued to run marathons and made it to the
nineteen sixty eight Olympics, but he had to drop out
of that Olympic marathon after about ten miles or sixteen
kilometers because of an injury. That was the last time

(03:25):
he would compete in the marathon. In nineteen sixty nine,
Bikolo was in a car crash that paralyzed him. After that,
he began participating in archery competitions and games for disabled athletes.
He was an honored guest at the nineteen seventy two
Munich Olympics. He died in October of nineteen seventy three

(03:47):
of a cerebral hemorrhage. Bikolo was not the first ever
black African to win an Olympic medal. That was like Corte,
a Ghanaian boxer who became the first black African Olympic
medallists when he got silver in nineteen sixty. I'm each
Chef Coote and hopefully you know a little more about

(04:07):
history today than you did yesterday. Get more Notes from
History on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook at t d I
h C podcast Tune in tomorrow for another Day in History.

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