Somalia’s Big Stage But A Different Home For Medals
By Karim Abdul
The World’s biggest stage is set for the world’s best athletes to compete at the highest level for individual and national pride. As a parent it is always a moment of pride when your child makes it in life; this shall be the case for parents of Somalia born Mo Farah, 33 and Kenyan born Mohammed Daud Mohammed 20 come Wednesday Aug 17, 2016 at 4:05 PM local time, the date for 5000M when the two take stage to represent Great Britain and Somalia respectively.
If they both make it to the finals they’ll take on stage again on Sunday Aug 21 at 3:30 am. By this time, if all factors remain constant, Mo Farah will have bagged his first Gold medal in Rio after defending his title in 10,000m, the title he won in London 2012.
On the other hand Maryan Nur Musse 19 shall attempt to take on USA’s Allyson Felix in 400m on Aug 13 when she puts on Somalia National colors for the fifth time including the 2014 Youth Olympic Games in China.
MO FARAH INFLUENCE
All eyes will be fixed on Somali born Mo Farah as he attempts to defend his London 2012 Olympic title. The cameras are set, the party is on and it almost certainly feels like when and not if the double Olympic champion in 10,000m and 5000m shall be crowned Britain’s greatest athlete.
Farah, 33, was born in Somalia to British-Somali parents, and moved to London when he was eight. He has eyes set on the prize and in the 10,000m Geoffrey Kipsang-Kamworor, Muktar Edris and Yigrem Demelash are the only guys who could upset the Briton. Ethiopians Yomif Kejelcha, Muktar Edris and Kenya’s Caleb Ndiku are equal favorites in 5000m race.
However, we know pretty damn well that in 2012 Farah completed an extraordinary ‘triple double’ as he won the 5,000m and 10,000m for the third global event in succession. Obviously he had won a gold in Beijing at the World Championships and at the 2013 World Championships in Moscow.
Fast-forward four years later, Mo Farah heads to Rio in red-hot form with the sole intention of defending his 5,000m Olympic crown. On August 17th, Farah will begin defence of his Olympic crown, taking to the track as the odds-on favorite in the blistering midday Brazilian heat. His schedule is certainly that of determination – he runs up to 120 miles a week, uses a hi-tech water treadmill, sleeps in an oxygen tent and switches between climates and altitudes.
He never takes a day off training; he wears out a new pair of trainers every week. The signs are good: last month, at the London Anniversary Games he stormed to victory in the 5,000m with the fastest time in the world so far this year.
MO FARAH FAMILY
The man, who was born in Mogadishu and moved to neighboring Djibouti, aged four; says he would love to do something for the kids when he finally calls it a day. His mother took him to live in London with his British father when he was eight; his twin brother Hassan would have gone, too, but did not make it.
His parents split up and his mother returned to Somalia leaving Farah to live with an aunt in Hanworth, southwest London. He met his wife Tania, as a teenager at Feltham Community College. They have four children – Rhianna, 11, who is from Tania’s previous relationship, twins Aisha and Amani, four, and Hussein, ten months.
Mo Farah has made enormous sacrifices, and now hopes it will pay off this summer in Rio. After that, he has some big decisions to make. Perhaps there is a hint that he could bid goodbye to his career after the summer games in Rio.
It is a dream of every competitor to retire from world stage at the highest level. That combined with a bag full of harvest for medals is what Mo Farah promises to achieve.
In a new BBC documentary, Mo Farah: Race of his Life, which follows him for weeks of competitions and training, sees him at home, braiding his daughters’ hair and reading to them. He had his two Olympic medals inscribed with the names of his twins, who were born just after the Games.
Hassan still lives in Somalia so the brothers see each other rarely but speak often, his mother Amran, who is in Somalia still keeps in touch with his son.
Somalia has produced Mo Farah and likes of Mohamed Daud Mohammed and his compatriot Maryan Nur Musse, There’s a lot more potential here that we can tap into as a country.