What was your
Olympic moment? I don’t mean the day you went for the gold, although you may
have had one of those, but the day you watched an Olympic event, either in
person or on TV, and it changed your life?
Mine happened
as a twelve-year-old watching the Rome Olympics on TV in 1960. Imperial
Bodyguard Abebe Bikila, a last minute addition to the Ethiopian Olympic team,
won the marathon in record time…in his bare feet. It was the first Olympic Gold Medal ever won
by a Sub-Saharan athlete. I watched the
race on my parents’ newly purchased Zenith color console at our home in
Philadelphia.
The 1960
marathon started and ended at the Arch of Constantine, next to the Colosseum.
In a spectacular and mesmerizing display of romance and artistry, the last few
miles of the race were run in the dark with only occasional spotlights to
illuminate the course. Bikila, tall and graceful in red shorts and green
singlet, the Ethiopian colors, out sprinted his lone challenger to the finish
line and through the Arch, the lights of the Colosseum behind him. Bikila became my hero and I vowed to someday
run a marathon and win a medal of my own.
Bikila won
the marathon again at the Tokyo Olympics in 1964. In 1969 he was paralyzed in an accident while
driving the Volkswagen Bug given to him by Haile Selassie for his Olympic
conquests. The accident occurred when he
swerved to avoid student protesters on the streets of Addis Ababa. He died of
complications in 1973. He was only 41.
On December
18, 1983, three days before the birth of my son Willie, I ran my first
marathon, finishing in three hours and twenty-six minutes. I dedicated my training and race to my wife,
my unborn son, and my inspiration, the great Olympian, Abebe Bikila. A few
months later I was fortunate to be in the Los Angeles Colosseum when Joan
Benoit won the first women’s Olympic Marathon. The temperature was in the 90’s
but I remember getting the chills as she entered the stadium and circled the
track to the finish line, tens of thousands of fans on their feet cheering as
she passed.
What was your
Olympic moment? BOBB and I would love to know.
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