Abebe bikila biography template

He gave the ring to Yetnayet, son of the late Abebe when Yetnayet came to Kasama City in Japan in December as a guest of honour for the half marathon competition conducted in honour of his father. His victory at the Olympics was featured in the documentary, Tokyo Olympiad directed by Kon Ichikawa. According to the journalist Tim Lewis's comparative review of the two books, Judah's is a more journalistic, less-forgiving biography of Abebe.

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A son of a shepherd, Abebe was raised on a farm, supporting his family. His parents were separated when he was young and he was raised by his mother and stepfather. He was the fastest and strongest amongst his peers. To keep the special army fit, the unit had several sport activities. A born athlete, Abebe took the opportunity to develop his love for sport activities and focused more in the long distance running.

Onni was a director of athletics in the Ministry of Education. On his first race, he finished second to Wami Biratu. There are two conflicting thought on how Abebe first got his shot to the Olympics in Rome. While some argue that he was a replacement at the last monument for missing runner, others argue that his participation is long planned.

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With the assistance of coach Onni, Abebe made intense preparation for the Rome Olympics. However, just a few days earlier to the Olympics, Abebe had a blister on his foot due to running with a new show. Some argue that Abebe was training to run bare foot, and it was all planned. He repeated this feat in the Olympics. What made Abebe's performances unique was the fact that he ran the entire marathon barefoot, astounding many people.

Everything seemed to be going well until he suffered a serious knee injury at the 17th kilometer of the race. Unfortunately, this was not the end of his misfortunes. Inhe was involved in a major car accident, resulting in multiple injuries and paralysis.

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He was given the use of a chauffeur-driven Volkswagen Beetle since he did not yet know how to drive and home, both owned by the guard. On December 13,while Haile Selassie was on a state visit to Brazil, Imperial Guard forces led by Mengistu Neway began an unsuccessful coup and briefly proclaimed Selassie's eldest son Asfaw Wossen Taffari emperor.

Fighting took place in the heart of Addis Ababa, shells detonated in the Jubilee Palace, and many of those closest to the Emperor were killed. Although Abebe was not directly involved, he was briefly arrested and questioned.

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Mengistu was later executed, and his forces which included many members of the Imperial Guard were killed in the fighting, arrested or fled. In the Athens Classical Marathon, Abebe again won while running barefoot. This was the second and last event in which he competed barefooted. While in Japan, he was approached by a Japanese shoe company, Onitsuka Tiger, with the possibility of wearing its shoes; they were informed by Niskanen that Abebe had "other commitments".

Kihachiro Onitsuka suspected that Abebe had a secret sponsorship deal with Pumain spite of the now-abandoned rules against such deals. Abebe ran the Boston Marathon —which was between his Olympic wins in and —and finished fifth in This was the only time in his competitive career that he completed an international marathon without winning.

He and countryman Mamo Woldewho finished 12th, had run together on record pace for 18 miles, until cold winds and the hills in Newton caused both to fall back. The race was won by Belgium's Aurele Vandendriessche in a course record Abebe returned to Ethiopia and did not compete in another marathon until in Addis Ababa. He won that race in a time of He was brought to the hospital and diagnosed with acute appendicitisand had an appendectomy on September Back on his feet in a few days, Abebe left the hospital within a week.

He entered the October 21 marathon wearing Puma shoes. This was in contrast to the previous Olympics in Rome, where he ran barefoot. Abebe began the race right behind the lead pack until about the 10 km 6 mi mark, when he slowly increased his pace. Shortly before 20 km 12 miAbebe took the lead; only Hogan was in contention, as Clarke began to slow.

By 35 km 22 miAbebe was almost two-and-a-half minutes in front of Hogan and Kokichi Tsuburaya of Japan was 17 seconds behind Hogan in third place. Hogan soon dropped out, exhausted, leaving only Tsuburaya three minutes behind Abebe by the 40 km 25 mi mark. Abebe entered the Olympic stadium alone, to the cheers of 75, spectators.