The Abebe Bikila Award is an annual prize given by the New York Road Runners club (NYRR) to honour individuals who have made a significant contribution to the sport of long-distance running. The first recipient of the award was Ted Corbitt, a founder of both NYRR and the Road Runners Club of America, who received the honour on October 27, 1978. The award is named in honour of the two-time Olympic marathon winner Abebe Bikila of Ethiopia.
Czech runner Emil Zátopek was the first foreign winner.
Olympic marathon winner Sohn Kee-chung of Korea was the first Asian to receive the prize.
Joan Samuelson was the second female athlete to take the award.
Shambel Abebe Bikila was an Ethiopian marathon runner who was a back-to-back Olympic marathon champion. He was the first Ethiopian Olympic gold medalist, winning his first gold medal at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome while running barefoot. At the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, he won his second gold medal, making him the first athlete to successfully defend an Olympic marathon title. In both victories, he ran in world record time.
Bikila in 1968
Abebe with wife Yewebdar and one of their children
Abebe (#11), following Bertie Messitt (#58), Bakir Benaïssa, Arthur Keily (#46), Aurèle Vandendriessche (#36), and Rhadi Ben Abdesselam (#185)
Moving away from Ben Abdesselam
