Mo Farah
Aims for Olympic Gold.
Article written by: Suad Nur
Mo Farah is the rising athlete whose popularity and success is just becoming apparent. The European champion silver medallist talks about being an athlete. The Somali born, British athlete is competing at senior level for Team Great Britain in the 2008 Beijing and 2012 London Olympics. He is representing Britain in the 5000m track competition and is believed to be a strong candidate for the Gold Medal in the 2012 Olympics.
In 1997 Mo became a professional athlete at the age of 17. Over the next few years he took part in many running competitions including Middlesex County and his own borough Heston. He qualified for England in1999 and went on to compete in the World Youth Cross Country held in Slovenia, where he came sixth. That same year Mo competed in the under 18s European Cross Country held in Poland coming 5th place. At this stage Mo exited the under 18s to compete with the under 20s. Besides qualifying for Great Britain, he loved winning the European 5000 track for under 20s in 2001. “This was one of the best things I have done since I became an athlete. The whole experience, the response, the crowd at the finishing line, the receiving of the medal on the podium and the national anthem was great and made me feel anything is possible. It is then that I decided I wanted to be a world champion one day.”
Mo Farah came to live in the United Kingdom in 1993 from Djibouti with his mother and two younger brothers. The family came to join their father who had already been living and working in the UK for many years. When he arrived in the UK, Mo was enrolled in the local primary school in Heston for the first time in his life. “I remember going to Madrasa in Djibouti but had never been to school.” Therefore, Mo was confronted with educational problems at school largely because of the language barrier. He also felt he did not receive the type of support he needed to reach his potential at school. This may have led him to favour sports over academic work.
