Abebe Bikila was a last-minute addition to the Ethiopian marathon team at the 1960 Rome Olympics. He only got the spot because the original runner broke his foot playing football. When Bikila arrived, the shoes provided by the team sponsor didn't fit. He decided to run the entire marathon barefoot, on the cobblestones and asphalt of Rome, just as he had trained. He pulled away in the final stretch and won in a world-record time, becoming the first sub-Saharan African to win an Olympic gold medal. When asked why he ran barefoot, he said: 'I wanted the world to know that my country, Ethiopia, has always won with determination and heroism.'