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Abebe Bikila wins his second Olympic marathon, 1964

By Joe Gromelski
Published: August 12, 2012
photoday081212

Fred G. Braitsch, Jr. ©Stars and Stripes
Tokyo, October, 1964: Ethiopia's Abebe Bikila becomes the first runner to win consecutive Olympic marathons as he crosses the line in a record time of 2:12:11. Bikila, black Africa's first Olympic champion with his win at Rome in 1960 (he ran that race barefoot, explaining that he did it to show that Ethiopia "has always won with determination and heroism"), was still recovering from appendicitis when he ran at Tokyo. He still won by more than four minutes.

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