Abebe Bikila was marathon runner from Ethiopia who won the Rome Olympics marathon on 10 September 1960 running without footwear. Abebe became a last minute inclusion to the Ethiopian team and the coutries sponsor, Adidas, did not have ample time to sort out running footwear for him to run in. Adidas just had two pairs of running shoes remaining, of which neither of them fitted him. Abebe made the decision he'd then do the the race without shoes. At the subsequent Olympics in Tokyo in 1964, Abebe again got the gold medal in the marathon race, but did it this time around wearing running shoes and ran faster. Abebe Bikila died in 1973 at the age of 41 from issues from a car accident. He is recognized and revered in his home country with a stadium bearing his name.
Abebe Bikila carries a unique place in the historical past of marathon running, in particular with those who recommend and promote barefoot running since they hold Abebe Bikila up as substantiation that the marathon may be run barefoot. Inside that community Abebe Bikila is an icon with an nearly god like popularity. There has been a craze a little while back for getting rid of running shoes and running without athletic shoes. This was driven by way of a great number of websites, forums, books and social media discourse as something that was advantageous and better for athletes. A lot of unsubstantiated claims appeared for barefoot running, probably none of which stood up to succeeding examination. This gimmick went on for a couple of years, quite possibly peaking close to 2013-14 with most likely around 25 % of athletes trying running barefoot or giving it a go at it in one way or another. The novelty easily went away when the majority of runners whom used it got an injury or realized that it didn't reach all of the assertions that got stated for it. This has today been relegated towards the history books, with simply a few devoted barefoot running fanatics still doing it.
There is lots of research completed on barefoot running that runners who choose to promote and propose without running shoes running held these studies up as proof that barefoot running is better for you. Nevertheless, the studies never essentially showed that at all and it was greatly misquoted. All the science revealed was that barefoot running was different to running using running footwear which was all it showed.
