In Popular Culture
Bikila's victory at the 1964 Olympics is featured in the 1965 documentary film Tokyo Olympiad. Footage from that film was later recycled for the 1976 thriller Marathon Man.
Bikila was featured in the Bud Greenspan film "The Marathon". It chronicled his two Olympic victories and ended with a dedication ceremony for a gymnasium named for him shortly before his death.
2009 Atletu (The Athlete) is a film directed by Davey Frankel and Rasselas Lakew which focuses on the final years of Bikila's life: his quest to regain Olympic glory, his accident (the circumstances of which are changed), his determination to compete again. The film was shot in 35mm, from the Arctic Circle to the Equator.
In 2010, Vibram introduced the "Bikila" model of its FiveFingers line of minimalist shoes.
Robin Williams made reference to Bikila's barefoot running in his stand-up special "Weapons of Self Destruction", saying, " won the Rome Olympics running barefoot. He was then sponsored by Adidas. He ran the next Olympics; he carried the fucking shoes."
In 2010, the Rome Marathon celebrated 50 years of Abebe Bikila's Olympics Race. To honour him, Ethiopian runner Siraj Gena ran the last 300 meters of the race barefoot and won it (for this he was awarded 5000 euro bonus).
Read more about this topic: Abebe Bikila
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