Abebe Bikala ran a marathon barefoot

The marathon is usually a challenging event; it is 42 kms of hard running. It's hard on the body, particularly the feet which is why all marathon runners spend such a lot of consideration to what exactly is on their feet. Marathoners spend a lot of time getting the suitable shoe and lots of money is involved in running shoes. Back at the 1960 Rome Olympic Games, the Ethiopian, Abebe Bikala arrived for the marathon where there were no running shoes remaining in the teams supplies which would fit him, so he ran the marathon without footwear and won the gold medal. This is often commonly praised as a exceptional achievement. Recently there's been a community of runners that are implying the running footwear is not all they may be promoted to be and are promoting that running should be carried out barefoot, the same as nature made us for. After all, we were not born with shoes and historical humans were required to run large distances barefoot to survive as animals had to be hunted on foot over great distances. Athletic shoes are actually only a quite recent creation.

Those who advocate the barefoot method of running like to point out the achievements of Abebe Bikala as even more justification that we don't need running shoes. There are obviously a number of other justifications both for as well as against barefoot running, with almost no scientific evidence supporting it. While Abebe Bikala obtaining the gold medal at the 1960 Rome Olympics barefoot undoubtedly suggest that it can be done, what those who like to tout his accomplishments as proof often omit that he later went on to win the gold medal as well as set a world record in the marathon at the 1964 Tokyo Olympic games. Abebe Bikala was able to set the world record this time wearing running shoes; to put it differently he had the ability to run faster when he was wearing running shoes. We might well have evolved to run without footwear, but we also evolved in an surroundings ahead of concrete and hard surfaces emerged. While the achievements of Abebe were tremendous, making use of him as proof that barefoot is better doesn't stack up to scrutiny.