Marcell Jacobs crushed the competition at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. He won by a landslide in the 100 meters and the 4×100, taking Italy up there, reaching heights never seen before in the history of the Italian national team. And yet, his majesty Usain Boltthe untouchable Jamaican athlete who took home 8 Olympic medals (gold) (in four editions) raised the question of the shoes used by Jacobs to win the two races.Strange and unjust” the adjectives used to define the Nike Max Fly flaunted by the Italian champion. A controversy that then dissolved into thin air.
Sixty-one years earlier, in the 1960 Rome Marathonthere were those who didn’t have the slightest problem about what outfit to wear. Their nation’s jersey is fine, shorts are fine, but no shoes. Yes, no shoes. Ethiopian Abebe Bikila chose to run the 42.195 kilometers of the Rome Olympics race completely barefoot. He agreed this choice, before leaving, with the coach, a Swede of Finnish origin, All Niskanenas far as possible from African culture. Yet, he accepted without batting an eyelid when faced with the express request of his athlete. “Onni, I’m used to winning this way and this is how I will compete”. No sooner said than done. Bikila began to scamper among monuments, ruins and statues of all kinds, barefoot. From the Capitoline Hill to the Arch of Constantine, passing through the Baths of Caracalla, via Cristoforo Colombo, the ring road, via Ardeatina, via Laurentina and via Appia Antica. Keeping up with athletes who “wore out” their sneakers on the asphalt. In fact, it was the others who had to keep up with the Ethiopian opponent, but they couldn’t do it because Bikila crossed the finish line first, also beating the record of his predecessor Zatopek.
A rather bizarre and unprecedented choice that earned the gold medal. But also a slap in the face from the African people to the colonizing West: “We have freed ourselves from you, in defiance of your rules. We play with ours. And we win”. And Bikila also won the marathon at the following Olympics. He gave up only to age and a very serious accident that, in 1969, paralyzed him from the legs down. He never managed to walk again, but his love for the sport did not crumble easily. He represented Ethiopia in archery, table tennis and also in a sled race in Norway. In 1972 he closed his career by participating in the Paralympic Games in Heidelberg in archery.. The following year, the heart stopped beating. But his name and that of Ethiopia still beat. And the legend of the man from Africa who crossed Rome without shoes, winning the Olympics, is still alive. Very much alive.