Abebe Bikila was an athlete from Ethiopia who got the gold medal at Rome Olympics marathon on 10 September 1960 racing without shoes. He became a last minute inclusion to the team and the teams footwear provider, Adidas, did not have ample time to get running shoes for him. They had just had a couple of pairs of running shoes remaining, of which neither of them fitted him. Abebe made the decision he'd then run the marathon without shoes. For the following Olympic games in Tokyo in 1964, Abebe once again won the marathon, but achieved it this time around wearing running shoes and ran it quicker. He passed on in 1973 at the age of 41 from issues from a car accident. Abebe Bikila is honored and adored in Ethiopia having a arena named after him.

Abebe Bikila has a unique place in the historical past of marathons, especially from those who advocate and publicize barefoot running as they hold Abebe up as evidence that the marathon race may be run without shoes. Within the barefoot running community Abebe is an inspiration by having an almost god like reputation. There has been a trend quite some time back for eliminating running shoes and running barefoot. This was influenced by way of a large amount of websites, discussion boards, publications as well as social media commentary as something which was beneficial and better for runners. Many unsubstantiated promises was created for barefoot running, probably none of that stood up to subsequent critique. This craze survived a few years, most likely peaking around 2013-14 with probably around one fourth of athletes attempting it or having a go at it in one way or another. The fad rather quickly went away following the majority of athletes whom attempted it got an injury or found that it didn't live up to all of the claims which got devised for it. Barefoot running has today been banished to the history books, with simply a few serious barefoot running fanatics still running barefoot.

There was a great deal of science completed on barefoot running that runners who like to support and endorse barefoot running held these studies up as proof that barefoot running is better for you. Nonetheless, the analysis never actually indicated that at all and it was extensively misinterpreted. All the research confirmed has been that barefoot running was different to running using running footwear which was all it showed.