Abebe Bikila

Abebe Bikila was an Ethiopian marathon runner who was a back-to-back Olympic marathon champion. He won the first gold medal at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome while running barefoot and the second gold medal at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. He is the first sub-Saharan African Olympic gold medallist. At Tokyo in 1964, Abebe became the first athlete to successfully defend an Olympic marathon title. He was a member of the Ethiopian Imperial Guard, an elite infantry division that safeguarded the Emperor of Ethiopia. Enlisting as a soldier before his athletic career, he rose to the rank of shambel (captain). In Ethiopia, Abebe is formally known as Shambel Abebe Bikila.