Which runner became the first athlete to win two Olympic marathon titles?

Abebe Bikila became the first athlete to win two Olympic marathon titles.

The Ethiopian won the 1960 Olympic marathon in Rome and defended his title at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. His second victory came only weeks after surgery for appendicitis, making the achievement especially notable.

Bikila’s 1960 victory made him the first Black African Olympic champion. He famously ran barefoot in Rome because he found the supplied shoes uncomfortable. In Tokyo, he wore shoes and won in an Olympic-record time of 2:12:11.2.

Bikila is sometimes confused with Waldemar Cierpinski, who also won consecutive Olympic marathons in 1976 and 1980. Cierpinski was the second athlete to achieve that feat, not the first.