Mo Farah: The man who escaped genocide and became an Olympic hero

Sir Mo Farah is a British sporting icon, becoming one of the most dominant long-distance runners in history, winning multiple World Championships and Olympic golds.

In 2011, Farah moved to Oregon in the United States to train under the guidance of eventual disgraced coach Alberto Salazar, who was later banned for life from coaching because of sexual and physical abuse allegations, according to The Guardian. He left him in 2017.

After starting his training at Nike, Farah began his world domination in the 5000 and 10000m races, securing his first 5000m World Championship gold in South Korea in 2011.

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From then on, Farah had a stranglehold in his signature races, winning two gold medals in the 5000 and 10000m at the 2012 Olympic Games. He won both events again at the 2013 and 2015 World Championships.

According to Britannica, he won consecutive Olympic golds in the 5000 and 10000m at the Rio Games in 2016, becoming the first man since Finland's Lasse Viren to win those races in consecutive Olympic Games.

Farah won his final World Championships gold medal in the 10000m in London before switching to marathon running. His only major marathon win came in Chicago in 2018, and in 2023, he announced the London Marathon would be his last race, finishing ninth.

Farah was named a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2013 New Year Honours list, and received a knighthood in 2017.

In the initial accounts of his childhood, he and his twin brother Hassan Farah were born in Mogadishu, Somalia. They were among six children born to Muktar Farah, a UK citizen, and his Somalian wife. A genocide in Somalia drove him and his brother to London with his father.

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In 2022, Farah revealed to the BBC that his birth name is Hussein Abdi Kahin, and his father, who's never been to England, was killed when Mo Farah was four years old because of the unrest in Somaliland.

Because of the war, Farah was sent to his uncles in Djibouti at nine years old. Once there, an unknown woman sent him to England after claiming he had relatives there. She also changed his name to Mohamed Farah.

He worked as a servant until he was 12 when he started school. Farah was an exceptional athlete and was removed from a home to live with a Somali family. His PE teacher steered him away from football and focused him on running.

Despite his upbringing in war and troubled start in England, Mo Farah has become a symbol of British sport and one of the best the country has had!

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