How it unfolded
Bikila, a member of the Ethiopian Imperial Guard, was an unknown who only made the team after a teammate withdrew injured. When the shoes issued for the race didn't fit, he decided to run barefoot, as he had trained. The race started at dusk on Capitoline Hill and ran into darkness along the Appian Way, lit by soldiers carrying torches. Bikila ran stride for stride with Morocco's Rhadi Ben Abdesselam until surging past the 40km mark, passing the Axum obelisk looted from Ethiopia and crossing the finish at the Arch of Constantine in a world-best 2:15:16.2, 25 seconds ahead of Rhadi. He showed no sign of fatigue afterward, stretching and jogging lightly. Four years later in Tokyo, just 40 days after an appendectomy, he won again in 2:12:11.2, becoming the first person to win two consecutive Olympic marathons.
Why it still matters
This produced the first-ever Olympic champion from sub-Saharan Africa and marked the starting point of East African distance dominance. That a soldier from a country Italy had invaded just 25 years earlier won barefoot in front of Rome's own monuments became a symbol of the decolonization era, and it opened the 60-year story of Kenya and Ethiopia coming to dominate road racing.