In July 2022, Mo Farah told BBC News about his childhood. “He was flown over from the East African country aged nine,” the BBC reported, and “The Olympic star has told the BBC he was given the name Mohamed Farah by those who flew him over from Djibouti. His real name is Hussein Abdi Kahin.” In his own words, as the title of the BBC’s video puts it: “People know me as Mo Farah, but it’s not my name.” The BBC says that “when he was about 11 he enrolled in Year 7 at Feltham Community College,” and that “Sir Mo’s PE teacher, Alan Watkinson, noticed a transformation in the young boy when he hit the athletics track.”
At the Rio 2016 Olympics he was the defending champion at 10,000 meters, in a final run on “13 AUG 2016 21:27” at “Rio de Janeiro (Estádio Olímpico),” the official results say. Farah “took a tumble at halfway when an accidental clip from his sometime training partner Galen Rupp saw him sprawled out in lane two,” World Athletics reported, and “Uganda’s Joshua Cheptegei” was the runner “who had almost tripped over Farah when the latter fell.” “He bounced to his feet immediately and gave Rupp a thumbs-up when Rupp came back to check on him.” “I wasn’t going to let it go. I got up quickly,” Farah said. “When I fell down, for a moment I thought my race was over, my dream was over but then I managed to dig deep.”
He had made a promise, he told World Athletics: “I promised my daughter … I was going to get her a medal and I was thinking ‘I can’t let her down.’” “Finally, Farah asserted himself in the last kilometre,” World Athletics wrote: “Farah moved to the front with a sharp burst of acceleration.” But “On the backstretch of the final lap, Tanui tried again for the lead,” and Farah “couldn’t overhaul Tanui again until the home straight.” There, World Athletics says, “he finally hit his top gear and pulled to the front.”
He won in 27:05.17. “Tanui took the silver medal in 27:05.64,” World Athletics said: 0.47 seconds behind. “Mo Farah of Great Britain joined the ranks of men who have successfully defended their 10,000m title, running 27:05.17 for the win on Saturday night.”
A week later he went again. “Farah returned after winning the 10,000m almost exactly a week before,” World Athletics wrote, and “Mo Farah completed his second consecutive Olympic double by successfully defending his 5000m gold on Saturday, winning in 13:03.30.” “Before Farah, the ‘double double’ had only been successfully completed by Finland’s Lasse Viren, who memorably won both races in 1972 and 1976.” In 2022, looking back on his childhood, he told the BBC: “What really saved me, what made me different, was that I could run.”
Fact check
The facts and where they come from
- He crashed to the track in an Olympic final, but he had made his daughter a promise. World Athletics: he “took a tumble at halfway when an accidental clip from his sometime training partner Galen Rupp saw him sprawled out in lane two.” Farah: “I promised my daughter … I was going to get her a medal and I was thinking ‘I can’t let her down.’” 1
- His name is Mo Farah. World Athletics results: “1 2452 Mo FARAH GBR 27:05.17.” 3
- He later revealed he was flown to Britain at nine, under a name that wasn’t his. BBC News: “He was flown over from the East African country aged nine” … “The Olympic star has told the BBC he was given the name Mohamed Farah by those who flew him over from Djibouti. His real name is Hussein Abdi Kahin.” His words, in the title of the BBC’s video: “People know me as Mo Farah, but it’s not my name.” 5
- At school, his teacher Alan Watkinson saw him come alive on the track. BBC News: “when he was about 11 he enrolled in Year 7 at Feltham Community College” and “Sir Mo’s PE teacher, Alan Watkinson, noticed a transformation in the young boy when he hit the athletics track.” 5
- In Rio, he was defending his Olympic 10,000-meter title. World Athletics: “Mo Farah of Great Britain joined the ranks of men who have successfully defended their 10,000m title, running 27:05.17 for the win on Saturday night.” World Athletics results: “13 AUG 2016 21:27,” “Rio de Janeiro (Estádio Olímpico).” BBC News: “Sir Mo won gold medals in the 5,000m and 10,000m at the London 2012 and Rio 2016 Olympic Games.” 135
- Midway through, he was clipped by accident. World Athletics: he “took a tumble at halfway when an accidental clip from his sometime training partner Galen Rupp.” 1
- He went sprawling, and a runner almost tripped over him. World Athletics: the clip “saw him sprawled out in lane two”; “Uganda’s Joshua Cheptegei, who had almost tripped over Farah when the latter fell.” 1
- He bounced straight back up. World Athletics: “He bounced to his feet immediately and gave Rupp a thumbs-up when Rupp came back to check on him.” Farah: “I wasn’t going to let it go. I got up quickly.” 1
- He’d promised his daughter a medal, and couldn’t let her down. Farah, to World Athletics: “I promised my daughter … I was going to get her a medal and I was thinking ‘I can’t let her down.’” 1
- In the last kilometer, he hit the front. World Athletics: “Finally, Farah asserted himself in the last kilometre” and “Farah moved to the front with a sharp burst of acceleration.” 1
- On the final lap, Kenya’s Paul Tanui went past him. World Athletics: “On the backstretch of the final lap, Tanui tried again for the lead” and “Farah couldn’t overhaul Tanui again until the home straight.” World Athletics results: “2 2698 Paul Kipngetich TANUI KEN 27:05.64.” 13
- In the home straight, he found top gear. World Athletics: “until the home straight, where he finally hit his top gear and pulled to the front.” 1
- Gold, by under half a second. World Athletics results: Farah 27:05.17, Tanui 27:05.64 (27:05.64 − 27:05.17 = 0.47 seconds). World Athletics: “Tanui took the silver medal in 27:05.64.” 31
- A week later, he won the 5,000 meters too. World Athletics: “Mo Farah completed his second consecutive Olympic double by successfully defending his 5000m gold on Saturday, winning in 13:03.30” and “Farah returned after winning the 10,000m almost exactly a week before.” World Athletics results: “20 AUG 2016 21:30,” “1 2452 Mo FARAH GBR 13:03.30.” 24
- Years later, he said, “What made me different was that I could run.” BBC News (his words, 2022): “What really saved me, what made me different, was that I could run.” 5
Sources
- Report: men’s 10,000m – Rio 2016 Olympic Games (Parker Morse, August 13, 2016) World Athletics
- Report: men’s 5000m final – Rio 2016 Olympic Games (Parker Morse, August 20, 2016) World Athletics
- Results: men’s 10,000-meter final, Olympic Games Rio 2016 World Athletics
- Results: men’s 5,000-meter final, Olympic Games Rio 2016 World Athletics
- Sir Mo Farah reveals he was trafficked to the UK as a child (July 11, 2022) BBC News
Notes
Where he fell: World Athletics says “at halfway”; Wikipedia and Reuters say the 10th of 25 laps. The Short says “midway through,” which fits both.
“Clipped,” not “tripped”: World Athletics calls it “an accidental clip” from Galen Rupp. The Short names no one for the fall; this page names Rupp only as World Athletics does, with “accidental.”
The promise: he said “a medal,” not “a gold medal,” so the Short says “a medal.” His daughter’s name is in his quote on World Athletics; this page leaves it out (a child, named only in passing). Popular retellings say she was watching in the crowd and that he fell to last place; no source we read says either, so both are left out.
His age: the BBC says he was flown over “aged nine,” and also that he was “about eight or nine” when he was taken from home to Djibouti. The Short uses the flight, “at nine.” His earlier public accounts, of arriving with his family as a refugee, are the ones he corrected in 2022; this page uses only the 2022 account, and gives it as his own (“He later revealed”).
“A week later”: World Athletics says “almost exactly a week before”; by the official results, the 10,000 meters was on August 13 and the 5,000 meters on August 20, 2016, seven days apart.
Mo Farah is alive. We use only what he has said in public: his words after the race (World Athletics, 2016) and in the BBC documentary and article (2022). Nothing here goes into the people who brought him to Britain, the household he lived in, his citizenship, or his family beyond “his daughter.” Alan Watkinson is named as the BBC names him; Paul Tanui is named only for the race.
Pictures: no free photo shows the fall itself. Sander van Ginkel’s seven photos, taken from the stands, are all from the Rio 10,000-meter final on August 13, 2016: Farah beside Paul Tanui, the lead pack, Farah in the pack from above, the pack on a bend seen from behind, Farah leading the pack, Farah crossing the line ahead of Tanui, and Farah on his hands and knees on the track after the finish. Tim Hipps (U.S. Army IMCOM Public Affairs) photographed Farah in the same final, winning the 5,000-meter final on August 20, 2016, and with his two Rio gold medals at the 5,000-meter medal ceremony. The black-and-white photo shows him running cross country at the London Youth Games on January 13, 1994; Feltham Community College is the site in August 2018, not his school years. The London 2012 photos show him in the Olympic 10,000 meters on August 4, 2012 (Al King) and with his London 2012 medals on August 12, 2012 (Mark McNestry); the Doha portrait is from May 14, 2015 (Vinod Divakaran).
Photo credits
The archive photos in this story
The photographs and illustrations in this story are in the public domain or shared under open licenses; each one is credited below with its license. Tap one to enlarge it, or follow the link to its Wikimedia Commons page for the full record. The narration, captions and graphics in the Short are our own; its music and sound effects are credited below.
Music and sound effects
Music: Schumann, Kinderszenen, Op. 15: No. 1 'Of Foreign Lands and Peoples (Musopen, public domain); Beethoven, Coriolan Overture, Op. 62 (Musopen Symphony Orchestra, CC0); Brahms, Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 73: IV. Allegro con spirito (Musopen Symphony Orchestra, CC0); Dvorak, Symphony No. 9 'From the New World': II. Largo (Musopen, public domain).
Sound effects: Freesound, CC0.
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