August 7 Birthdays

1932
Abebe Bikila, Ethiopian long-distance runner. Bikila was the first athlete to repeat as an Olympic gold medalist in the marathon, winning both the 1960 (Rome) and 1964 (Tokyo) Olympic marathons, both in world best times (2:15:16.2 and 2:12:11.2). Notably, Bikila's shoes had worn out prior to the 1960 Olympic race, and, lacking properly-fitting footwear, he opted to run the marathon barefoot. Bikila won 12 of the 15 marathons that he started in his career, one of his rare losses being a fifth-place finish at Boston in 1963 (2:24:43). Paralyzed in an auto accident in 1969, Bikila died on 23 October 1973.

1950
David James "Dave" Wottle, American middle-distance runner. Dave Wottle won the 1972 (Munich) Olympic 800m race. Uncharacteristically for an 800-meter runner, Wottle ran almost perfectly even splits in the race, making it appear that he had started out slow and finished with a devastating kick. In reality, the other runners had gone out hard and Wottle had swept them up as they died. Wottle was also an NCAA 1500m champion in 1972 and NCAA mile champion in 1973.