Mamo Wolde

Early life

Degaga was born on 12 June 12 1932 in Ada'a to an Oromo family. In 1951, he moved to Addis Ababa.

Athletics career

At his first Olympic appearance in 1956, Degaga competed in the 800 m, 1,500 m and the 4x400 relay.

He didn't compete in the 1960 Summer Olympics, when Abebe Bikila became the first Ethiopian to win a gold medal. Degaga claimed his absence was due to the government's desire to send him on a peacekeeping mission to the Congo during the Congo Crisis. According to him, in the government's ensuing conflict with the Ethiopian Olympic Committee, who wanted him to compete, he didn't get sent to either event. However, athlete Said Moussa Osman, who represented Ethiopia in the 800 m at the 1960 Olympics, stated that Degaga lost at the trials and didn't make it on the team.

Beginning in the 1960s, Degaga's focus changed from middle distance races to long distances. He placed fourth in the 10,000 m at the 1964 Summer Olympics, which was won by Billy Mills of the United States in one of the biggest upsets in the history of Olympic competition. During the 1960s, Degaga's younger brother Demissie Wolde also became an olympic marathon runnner.

On April 21, 1965, as part of the opening ceremonies for the second season of the 1964/1965 New York World's Fair, Abebe and Degaga participated in an exclusive ceremonial half marathon. They ran from the Arsenal in Central Park at 64th Street & Fifth Avenue in Manhattan to the Singer Bowl at the fair. They carried with them a parchment scroll with greetings from Haile Selassie.

In 1968 Summer Olympics, Degaga became the second Ethiopian to win gold in the marathon. Earlier in the same Olympics, he had won the silver medal in the 10,000 m. In 1972, Degaga won a third Olympic medal at the age of 40, placing third in the marathon. He blamed his third place showing on ill-fitting shoes forced on him by Ethiopian officials. Nonetheless, he became only the second person in Olympic history (Bikila was the first) to medal in successive Olympic marathons. Both medalists ahead of him in 1972, Frank Shorter and Karel Lismont would repeat the feat in 1976 behind Waldemar Cierpinski who would do it in 1980. Erick Wainaina was the most recent and only other to do it in 2000. Degaga also won the marathon race of 1973 All-Africa Games.

Military career

In 1951, Degaga joined the Imperial Guard. He later served as a peacekeeper in Korea from 1953 to 1955.

Arrest

In 1993, Degaga was arrested on the accusation that he participated in a Red Terror execution during the regime of the dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam. He argued that although he was present at the killing, he was not a direct participant. The IOC campaigned the Ethiopian government for his release. In early 2002 he was convicted and sentenced to six years of imprisonment. Therefore, he was released because he had spent nine years in detention already waiting for his trial.

Death

On May 26, 2002, Degaga died of liver cancer at age 69, just a few months after his release. He had been married twice and had three children; a son with his first wife, Samuel, and two children, Addis Alem and Tabor, with his second wife. Degaga is interred in Saint Joseph's Church Cemetery in Addis Ababa.