The italian organisers of the 1960 Rome Olympic Marathon expected their event to make history.
It was the first Marathon that neither started nor finished in the Olympic Stadium, instead offering a tour of the ancient city’s famous historical sites.
As an added flourish, they started the race in the early evening, guaranteeing that the runners would conclude by the flickering glow of a thousand torches.
But the organisers never imagined the winner would run barefoot, that he would be from Africa, and that his triumph would mark a turning point in the evolution of worldwide distance running.
No one had ever heard of 28-year-old Abebe Bikila before the race, and at the start the Ethiopian drew snickers: he wasn’t wearing shoes.
Given that some of the final kilometres would be run over the cobblestoned Appian Way, his approach seemed suicidal. Bikila paid no heed.
He ran an easy 5-K, was with the leaders at 10-K, and went to the front with Moroccan Rhadi Ben Abdesselam at 20-K.
The two ran the rest of the way side by side until Bikila, with a seemingly effortless glide, surged ahead in the last 1 600m. He made his move as he passed the obelisk of Axum, an Ethiopian relic plundered by Italy and moved to Rome. (It was returned to Ethiopia in 2008.)
Bikila’s time, 2:15:17, was not just an Olympic record, but a new world record.
Bikila wasn’t the first marathoner to go barefoot in the Olympics. South African Tswana runner Len Taunyane, finished ninth at the St. Louis Games in 1904. It is widely speculated that Taunyane would have finished in a higher position, but had to make a rather drastic detour after a dog started chasing him.
Len Taunyane and Jan Mashiani (both South African) were the first South Africans’ to take part in the Olympic games. However, they ran as individual participants, not officially representing South Africa. Reports suggest the duo were in St Louis as part of a Boer War exhibit, where they were apparently paraded as tribesmen, despite being students at Free State University.
Click here for a few more “Strange, But True!” Olympic Stories. For the full article, get August issue of Runner’s World – or buy it online, here.
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Hi everyone,
Just over a year and a half ago, I was out on the road doing a 15km run; using trail shoes…after about 5km I could feel the blisters beginning to develop. I removed my shoes and continued the rest of the run on my socks… AND IT FELT SO GREAT that I left my shoes next to a bus stop.
Even with 6 months of my training, I started up again in December 2012, last Sunday I ran my first(Barefoot) Marathon 42km(3hour59min), and completed it 30min faster than the previous time on the same marathon(with shoes).
My feet are fine and I’m training for the Comrades Ultra (87km) coming up in June 2013. I’ve got my sight set on my first 100miler in August 2013.
Keeping all this in mind, this flat footed boy had two hip operations when I was 10 years old, the doctors told me that I’d be in a wheelchair by the age of 16. I’m turning 30 in March, I’ll be sure to send them my medals.
My advice, don’t even try minimalist shoes, go barefoot as much as your routine would allow, I even go to the bank barefoot, I never wear shoes/sandals.
If you go bare from the start, you’ll be able to realise how to change your running style from the start, I’m still adapting and tweaking my style,,, if it hurts you’re doing it wrong.
Remember the definition of insanity “doing the same thing, over and over again… expecting a different result”
I can understand why most people don’t even try it… I was judged harshly during my first barefoot marathon, by runners in trainers. I laughed at all of them though, it was funny to see only about ten runners (out of thousands) still “heel striking”, to me it seems though everyone wants to change their running form to that of a barefoot runner, without going bare.. it will help with your running, but not nearly as much as the real deal.
Just research “the asch experiment” and you’ll easily see that the real reason soo many people don’t want to change to barefoot running is due to group conformity.
To think that in under a hundred years, sheeple have been led completely astray by greedy money seeking unenlightened %#$@^@%.
Mmhee….