When famous film director John Schlesinger formulated the opening sequence Marathon runnerclassic thriller starring Dustin Hoffman, decided to use footage of Abebe Bikila from the official film of the 1964 Olympic Games.
It’s not hard to see why.
Watching Bikila in Kon Ichikawa’s highly acclaimed and evocative film Tokyo Olympics is as mesmerizing an experience today as it was when the mysterious Ethiopian calmly glided through the streets of the Japanese capital 60 years ago and entered the annals of athletics history.
A member of Emperor Haile Selassie’s Imperial Bodyguard, Bikila already had a landmark achievement under his belt with his stunning success in the barefoot marathon in Rome in 1960, opening the floodgates as the first Olympic gold medal winner from the long-distance running hotbed of East Africa.
A metal cast of Bikila’s right foot, which was personally measured by the late ASICS founder and president Kihachiro Onitsuka in 1961 when the Ethiopian visited Japan to take part in the Mainichi Marathon – a race he won in 2:29:27 – will be introduced in December Museum of World Athletics (MOWA).
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Metal cast of Abebe Bikila’s right foot (© MOWA)
Mesmerizing close-up and slow-motion shots of Bikila on his way to becoming the first Olympic marathon champion show a timeless figure running with freedom and grace and a fluidity of step reminiscent of Kenenisa Bekele, the royal Ethiopians who followed the pioneering African king of long-distance running.
There is no trace of anxiety on Bikila’s face as he moves away from brave Irish athlete Jim Hogan and Australian world record holder Ron Clarke and into the glorious isolation of what he truly was: a marathon runner in his own right.
Just 40 days earlier, Bikila had undergone appendectomy. For this reason, he was not expected to repeat his Roman heroism.
This time in Bikila’s shoes he held back, while Clarke – the 10,000m bronze medalist the week before – completed the first 5km in 15:06.
He took the lead just before the halfway point and ran an impressive 4 minutes and 7 seconds over the finish line in 2:12:11.2, breaking the world record of 2:13:55 held by British runner Basil Heatley, who then dramatically he overtook in a sprint. The silver medal was won by Japan’s Kokichi Tsuburaya.
After crossing the line, waving and declining the offer of a blanket, an unfazed Bikila calmly walked onto the goal to entertain the delighted crowd of 75,000 with a sustained display of gymnastic exercises.
Mel Watman characteristically put it in his race report Athletics Weekly.
“Watching Bikila Abebe (sic) race was an almost mystical experience,” observed the great British track and field writer.
“How can a man run 26 miles in 5:02 seconds and seemingly remain as fresh and composed as he was when he started?
“The rest of the world’s distance runners would love to know.”
Despite his breakthrough victory in Rome four years earlier, in a then world record time of 2:15:16.2, Bikila was still such a mystical figure to the wider world of athletics that his name was still spelled backwards, and not just on reports, but in the official results.
“I’m not afraid of anyone”
In 1965, John Usherwood traveled to Addis Ababa in search of the marathon runner behind the mystique Illustrated sports. He admitted he was surprised when the double Olympic champion returned from a two-hour morning run in a sweaty state.
“Watching his post-marathon exercise repertoire in Tokyo, I imagined that he probably wasn’t sweating, wasn’t breathing heavily, or had a pulse,” Usherwood wrote.
The American sports writer also discovered that Bikila was not naturally blessed with his silky smooth running style.
It was perfected by the Finnish-born Swedish coach who was behind Bikila’s success.
Abebe Bikila on his way to victory in the Tokyo Marathon (© Getty Images)
Onni Niskanen was a major in the Swedish army, seconded to the Ethiopian military services as an advisor and then director of physical education.
A long-distance runner himself, selected to represent Sweden at the ultimately canceled Alternative People’s Games in Barcelona in 1936, Niskanen raised Bikila on a diet of interval sessions and twice-weekly two-hour runs in the hills and mountains near Addis.
“Before 1959, I hardly knew who this Abebe was,” Niskanen told Usherwood. “He was only third in the marathon qualifying round for the Olympic Games in Rome, and he was already 27 years old.
“We had a lot of problems at the beginning. He couldn’t hold his head properly, his hands were flying, his balance was bad. I had to shout at him to convince him.
“But this man’s dedication and willpower… I’ve never seen anyone like him. He always expects to win.
“He doesn’t even know who he’s racing against. Clarke, Heatley, Edelen? They’re just names to him.
Bikila agreed. “I’m not afraid of anyone,” he said. “I don’t need to know the names or faces of those I surpass.”
“Written in My Destiny”
A notable exception was Mamo Wolde. Bikila respected and respected, but was not afraid of, his guard colleague and training partner, who finished fourth at the Olympic Games in the 10,000 m in Tokyo.
As fate dictated, Wolde replaced Bikila and became Olympic marathon champion in Mexico City in 1968. Bikila withdrew after running 27 miles due to a fractured fibula.
A year later, he suffered a spinal injury in a car accident, which left him paralyzed from the waist down.
While undergoing treatment in England in 1970, he competed in archery and table tennis at the Stoke Mandeville Games, an early predecessor to the Paralympic Games.
Bikila stoically accepted his fate, remarking in 1971: “It was written in my destiny that at some point I would be a famous athlete, and at some point I would be as you find me now. This is God’s will.”
The great Ethiopian Marathon Emperor died of a cerebral hemorrhage in Addis Ababa in 1973. He was only 41 years old.
Simon Turnbull for World Athletics Heritage