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DID YOU KNOW?
THE CYNOSURE of all eyes in the boxing arena at the 1960 Rome Olympics was the 18-year-old Cassius Clay (USA). He comfortably won the lightweight gold and was later to take the world heavyweight professional title. He turned professional soon after the Games, converted to Islam and came to be known as Muhammad Ali.
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WILMA RUDOLPH (USA), one of the 19 children of her parents, was affected by polio in childhood. She defied her physical ailments to dominate the track events at the Rome Games. She picked three gold medals, in the 100 metres, 200 m and the 4 x 400 m relay to usher in the black female Americans' significant contribution to the U.S. bag of Olympics medals in recent times.
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ABEBE BIKILA (Ethiopia), conquered the Olympic marathon like no one before. At the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games, he became the first man to retain the marathon title, which he won in 1960. An injury forced Bikila to abandon the race 10 km before the finish in the 1968 Games. His legs were amputated after a major car accident just before the 1972 Games.
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INDIA'S MILKHA Singh finished fourth in a photo-finish 400 metres sprint at the 1960 Games. Despite this he bettered the Olympic mark.
All the first four runners broke the records in that event. Otis Davis (USA) won the gold, Carl Kaufmann (Germany) the silver and Mel Spence (South Africa) the bronze.
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