John Akii-Bua

Who is John Akii-Bua?

John Akii-Bua was born in Abako in the Lango sub-region of northern Uganda into a large polygamous family and left formal schooling early to help support his household. Coached by the British athletics coach Malcolm Arnold, he was redirected from short hurdles into the demanding 400 meters hurdles and trained with an unusually punishing regimen that included repeats in a weighted vest and high-altitude hill sprints near Kabale. At the 1972 Munich Olympics he won the 400 meters hurdles final in a world-record time of 47.82 seconds, becoming Uganda's first Olympic gold medalist and the first man to break 48 seconds in the event, then celebrated with an impromptu victory lap over the hurdles. As defending champion, he was denied a shot at the 1976 Montreal Olympics when Idi Amin ordered the Ugandan team home as part of an African boycott, even though Akii-Bua had already reached the Olympic Village. He fled Uganda by car in 1979 during the war that ousted Amin, later receiving the Olympic Order in 1986, and died in Uganda in 1997.

Sources: Wikipedia, "John Akii-Bua" · World Athletics, "Uganda to remember Olympic hurdler John Akii Bua" · Monitor (Uganda), "Untold story of Uganda's first Olympic gold medal"