Abebe Bikila, the Ethiopian marathon runner, wasn’t considered likely to win any medals in the 1960 Olympics. Ethiopia was not noted for its distance runners, and in the Olympic trials he had managed to finish only third. Besides, when Bikila lined up with the other 68 runners, the spectators saw that he wasn’t wearing shoes. Part of the route lay over Rome’s cobblestoned streets. What chance did a shoeless man have on such a roadway?

Before the race was over, the jeers had turned to cheers. The mobs along the route shouted encouragement to him and offered him water, which he refused. He won the gold medal, coming in 25 seconds ahead of the second-place finisher.

Bikila trained hard for the 1964 Olympics, but he didn’t seem to have the same fire. As part of his training he entered the 1963 Boston Marathon and finished fifth. But he went to Tokyo in 1964, determined to do his best.

This time he wore shoes. Bikila took the lead early, and by the finish nobody else was even in sight. He won the race by more than 4 minutes.

Bikila tried again in 1968, but another victory was impossible. He sustained a small fracture in his foot and had to drop out a third of the way through.

From The Giant Book of More Strange But True Sports Stories by Howard Liss. Illustrations by Joe Mathieu.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abebe_Bikila