Mo Farah

Sir Mohamed Muktar Jama Farah is a former British long-distance runner. He is widely considered one of the greatest runners in history. Farah holds the record for the most global championship gold medals. He has won four Olympic gold medals and six World titles. This makes him the most successful male track distance runner ever. He is also the most successful British track athlete in Olympic history.

Farah's racing style is known for being both bouncy and tactical. He focuses on energy efficiency to survive long races. A tactical runner follows a specific plan to manage their strength. Farah could run 24 laps of the track in a 10,000-meter race. Most of his East African rivals could match his steady pace for those laps. However, no one could match his blistering 400-meter sprint finish. This quick burst at the end allowed him to win many races.

His career is defined by several major achievements and titles. He achieved the "distance double" at the 2013 and 2015 World Championships. This means he won both the 5,000m and 10,000m titles. He was the first man to defend both titles in both major global competitions. This feat is known as the "quadruple-double." He also had an unbroken streak of ten global final wins. This streak lasted from the 2011 World Championships until 2017.

Farah's life began with significant challenges in the Somali Democratic Republic. He was born Hussein Abdi Kahin on 23 March 1983. His father died during the Somali Rebellion when he was four. He later became separated from his mother. At age nine, he was illegally trafficked to the United Kingdom via Djibouti. He was forced into child labour as a domestic servant. He used the name Mohamed Farah during this time. He did not reveal this part of his history until 2022.

After arriving in Britain, Farah eventually attended Feltham Community College. His athletic talent was first identified by a teacher named Alan Watkinson. He initially wanted to be a car mechanic or a football player. He joined the Newham and Essex Beagles athletics club. Later, he trained at St Mary's University College from 2001 to 2011. An athletics philanthropist named Eddie Kulukundis helped pay his legal fees. This allowed Farah to complete his naturalization as a British citizen.

Farah set many impressive records during his professional career. He won the 2018 Chicago Marathon in 2:05:11. This time was a European record for the marathon. He is the current world record holder for the one-hour run. He ran 21,330 meters in that one-hour period. He also holds the European outdoor 10,000m record of 26:46.57. Additionally, he held British records for the 3,000m and 5,000m races.

His success earned him many prestigious honors and awards. He won the European Athlete of the Year award three times. He also won the British Athlete of the Year award six times. In 2017, he won the BBC Sports Personality of the Year. Queen Elizabeth II knighted him in the 2017 New Year Honours. This was for his services to the sport of athletics. Today, a wax statue of him stands at Madame Tussauds in London.