On this day in 1960, in Rome, the Olympic marathon started in the late afternoon and finished under torchlight at the Arch of Constantine, and the man who got there first was wearing nothing on his feet at all. Abebe Bikila, bib number 11, 2:15:16.2, a world best for the distance, with a winning margin of 25.4 seconds over Rhadi Ben Abdesselam of Morocco. Sixty-nine runners from thirty-five nations went to the line. All three medalists came from countries that had never won a marathon medal before. That is a box score I could stare at all night!
And here's the part I love: Abebe was a late addition to the team, in after a teammate got hurt. He was not the headline. He became the first athlete from sub-Saharan Africa to win Olympic gold, and by the accounts of the day he finished looking fresh enough to keep going, stretching and jogging while everyone else caught their breath.
The photograph below is that night: bare feet, bib 11, 185 tucked in behind him, spectators in suits and dresses clapping from the roadside, a boy in shorts among them. The film below jumps ahead four years to Tokyo, where the former palace guard did it again. Some stories get a sequel, teammates, and this one earned it.
Toby, the detail I hold onto is his coach Onni Niskanen, who trained him on rough ground at over 2,300 metres around Addis Ababa. The shoes offered in Rome didn't fit, so he ran the way he had trained. Not a stunt, just correct kit selection.
Toby, the Ethiopian runners of that era trained and travelled on plain, sturdy food: injera from teff with wot, roasted barley, honey when there was some, and coffee taken seriously. Race day itself was mostly water on the road, and the real meal came after.