Abebe Bikila Abebe Bikila Abebe Bikila (; August 7, 1932 – October 25, 1973) was an Ethiopian marathon runner. A double Olympic marathon champion, he won the first at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome while running barefoot, setting a world record. He is Africa's first world record breaking athlete in any sport and the first sub-Saharan African Olympic gold medallist. At the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Abebe became the first athlete to successfully defend an Olympic marathon title, breaking his own world record in the process. He was a member of the Ethiopian Imperial Guard, an elite infantry division that
Weightlifting in Armenia from the Armenian SSR was Vardan Militosyan, who won a silver medal at the 1976 Summer Olympics. Yurik Vardanyan became the first weightlifter from Armenia to win a gold medal in weightlifting at the 1980 Summer Olympics. In a dominant performance, Vardanyan became the first ever light-heavyweight (82.5 kg) to lift a total of 400 kg in an official competition, shattering both the Olympic and world records. By contrast, middle-heavyweight gold medalist Peter Baczako (90 kg) totaled 377.5 kg and sub-heavyweight gold medalist Ota Zaremba (100 kg) totaled 395 kg. Vardanyan set the division record for a final time at