IN MEMORY OF A MAN WHO CHANGED THE WORLD.  Abebe Bikila was born in Mout, Ethiopia, August 7, 1932, the day of the 1932 Los Angeles Olympic Marathon.  28 years later, he ran the 1960 Rome Olympic Marathon barefooted.  He and his coach, Onni Niskanen, planned his decisive move to be one kilometer from the finish, where the course passed the Obelisk of Axum (see photo), a monument plundered from Ethiopia by Italian troops in 1935 and taken to Rome.  When Bikila reached the obelisk, he pulled away from Rhadi Ben Abdesselem of Morocco to win by 200m in 2:15:16.  His victory made him a national hero and inspired athletes around the world. At the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Marathon, despite an appendectomy 40 days before the race, Bikila ran again, this time in socks and shoes.  He took the lead by the halfway mark and won by more than four minutes. His time, 2:12:11, was a world best for the marathon -- and the first time anyone won two Olympic marathons.  Instead of a victory lap in Olympic Stadium, he performed jumping jacks and other exercises after his race while other runners crossed the finish line.   At the 1968 Mexico City Olympic Marathon, Bikila tried for a third win, but affected by the heat and altitude, he dropped out after 17 kilometers, instead cheering on his countryman Mamo Wolde to victory.   In 1969, a car crash near Addis Ababa left Bikila paralyzed from the waist down. As a wheelchair athlete, he won gold medals in 1970 at 10K and 25K cross-country sledge competitions in Norway, but he never regained full health and died in Addis Ababa on October 25, 1973.  Sources:  www.wikipedia.org | www.olympic.org | www.ethiopians.com       The Obelisk of Axum that motivated Abebe Bikila was returned to Axum, Ethiopia, in April 2005 and awaits re-assembly.  Bilila's memory lives on.