1. Sir Mohamed Muktar Jama Farah was born on Hussein Abdi Kahin; 23 March 1983 and is a Somali-British former long-distance runner.
116 Facts About Mo Farah
1. 2.
Mo Farah completed the 'distance double' at the 2013 and 2015 World Championships in Athletics.
3.
Mo Farah was the first man to defend both distance titles in both major global competitions; a feat described as the 'quadruple-double'.
4.
Mo Farah won the 2018 Chicago Marathon in a time of 2:05:11, a European record.
5.
Mo Farah's running style has been described as bouncy and tactical, which he has attempted to alter for a more efficient and energy-saving stride pattern, especially in the longer distances.
6.
Mo Farah adopted the name as his own thereafter, becoming a British citizen.
7.
Mo Farah ran for Newham and Essex Beagles athletics club, training at St Mary's University College, Twickenham from 2001 to 2011.
8.
Mo Farah did not reveal that he was a victim of trafficking until 2022.
9.
Mo Farah formerly held the world best for the short track two miles at 8:03.40, and formerly held the European best in the outdoor two mile and 3000m, until Jakob Ingebrigtsen broke the 2 mile in 2023 with a new world best of 7:54.10 and the 3,000m in 2024 with a world record time of 7:17.55.
10.
Mo Farah was the former British short track record holder for the 3,000 m, at 7:33.1+.
11.
Mo Farah held the 1500m British Record which was broken by Josh Kerr in 2024 with a time of 3:27.79.
12.
Mo Farah was the first British athlete to win two gold medals at the same world championships.
13.
Mo Farah has won the European Athlete of the Year award and the British Athletics Writers Association British Athlete of the Year award more than any other athlete, three times and six times respectively.
14.
In 2017, Mo Farah won the BBC Sports Personality of the Year.
15.
Mo Farah was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2013 and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in the 2017 New Year Honours for services to athletics.
16.
Mo Farah belongs to the Jibril Abokor sub-division of the Habr Awal clan, itself part of the Isaaq clan-family.
17.
Mo Farah's father died in the Somaliland War of Independence when Kahin was aged four, and he then became separated from his mother.
18.
Mo Farah subsequently spent a few years in Mogadishu before, at the age of nine, he was illegally trafficked to the United Kingdom via Djibouti, where he was given the name Mohammed Farah and was forced to work as a domestic servant.
19.
Mo Farah was flown from Somalia by a woman he had never met, and made to look after another family's children.
20.
Mo Farah obtained British citizenship in July 2000 under the name Mohamed Farah.
21.
Mo Farah joined the Borough of Hounslow Athletics Club in west London.
22.
Mo Farah represented Hounslow at cross-country in the 1994 London Youth Games as an under-13.
23.
That year, Mo Farah became one of the first two athletes in the newly formed Endurance Performance Centre at St Mary's.
24.
Mo Farah lived and trained at the college, and took some modules in an access course before becoming a full-time athlete as his career progressed.
25.
In 2005, Mo Farah moved in with Australian Craig Mottram and a group of Kenyan runners that included 10,000 m world number one Micah Kogo.
26.
In July 2006, Mo Farah recorded a time of 13 minutes 9.40 seconds for 5000 m to become Britain's second-fastest runner after Dave Moorcroft.
27.
Mo Farah represented the UK at 5000 m in the 2007 World Championships in Osaka, Japan.
28.
In May 2008, Mo Farah ran 10,000 m events, which was the fastest UK men's time for almost eight years.
29.
Mo Farah attributed his good form to a spell of winter training at altitude in Ethiopia and Kenya.
30.
Mo Farah was one of the favourites to upset Serhiy Lebid's dominance at the 2009 European Cross Country Championships.
31.
Mo Farah was overtaken by Bezabeh in the latter stages of the race, leaving the Briton with a second consecutive silver medal at the competition.
32.
Mo Farah did not manage to attend the medal ceremony as he collapsed immediately after the race and needed medical attention.
33.
Mo Farah was the favourite to win and surged ahead to build a comfortable lead.
34.
Mo Farah again required post-race medical attention and subsequent tests revealed he had low levels of iron and magnesium.
35.
Mo Farah was prescribed supplements for the condition and his high altitude training plans in Kenya were unaffected.
36.
Mo Farah won the 2010 London 10,000 in late May in a time of 27:44, in the process beating 10K world record holder Micah Kogo.
37.
Mo Farah won by a margin of over forty seconds ahead of second placed Abdellatif Meftah.
38.
In December 2010, Mo Farah was named track-and-field athlete of the year by the British Olympic Association.
39.
In February 2011, Mo Farah announced that he would be relocating to Portland, Oregon to work with new couch Alberto Salazar, train alongside Galen Rupp, and avoid the attention of the British tabloids.
40.
Mo Farah edged out American Bernard Lagat to win the race.
41.
Mo Farah stated that he would observe his Ramadan fast later in the year.
42.
On 11 August 2012, Mo Farah made it a long-distance double, winning the 5000 metres in a time of 13:41.66.
43.
Mo Farah dedicated the two golds to his twin daughters.
44.
On 23 August 2012, Mo Farah returned to the track at a Diamond League meet in Birmingham, where he capped off a winning season with another victory over a distance of two miles.
45.
The move was met with anger by many in the general public, including erstwhile Minister of Sports Gerry Sutcliffe, who felt that Mo Farah instead deserved a higher accolade.
46.
On 19 July 2013, at the Herculis meeting in Monaco, Mo Farah broke the European 1500 m record with a time of 3:28.81.
47.
On 10 August 2013, Mo Farah stayed in front of Ibrahim Jeilan to win the 10,000 m event at the World Championships in Moscow.
48.
On 16 August 2013, Mo Farah won the 5,000 m event, in the process becoming double world and Olympic champion.
49.
Mo Farah was the first British athlete to win two individual gold medals at a World Championships.
50.
In December 2013, Mo Farah was the second favourite, behind Wimbledon tennis champion Andy Murray, to become the BBC Sports Personality of the Year.
51.
Mo Farah was a finalist for the 2013 IAAF World Athlete of the year award.
52.
Mo Farah began 2014 preparing for the year's London Marathon, his first such run.
53.
Mo Farah described running the event as a longstanding ambition of his, particularly to do so in London.
54.
Mo Farah finished in eighth place in a time of 2:08.21.
55.
Mo Farah was due to compete at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
56.
Mo Farah later appeared in Zurich at the 2014 European Athletics Championships.
57.
Mo Farah successfully defended his 5000 m title and won a gold in the 10,000 m, thus completing another major championship double.
58.
On 7 September 2014, Mo Farah competed in the Great North Run, a British half marathon.
59.
On 21 February 2015, Mo Farah broke the indoor two-mile world record at the Birmingham Indoor Grand Prix.
60.
Mo Farah ran an 8:03.4 to break Kenenisa Bekele's record.
61.
Mo Farah ran a time of 59 minutes, 32 seconds, surpassing the record set 14 years previously by Spain's Fabian Roncero.
62.
Mo Farah repeated his long-distance gold medal double at the 2015 World Championships in Athletics.
63.
On 26 March, Mo Farah received a bronze medal in the 2016 IAAF World Half Marathon Championships in Cardiff, finishing in 59:59, less than one second ahead of Abayneh Ayele.
64.
On 5 June 2016, Mo Farah broke the 34-year-old British 3000 metre record set by Moorcroft by winning the Diamond League in Birmingham, a win he dedicated to the recently deceased boxer Muhammad Ali.
65.
In July 2016 Mo Farah set the concurrent world-leading time in the 5000m in winning the Diamond League in London.
66.
Mo Farah won the 10,000m at the Diamond League in Eugene, in a time of 26:53.71 which remained the second-fastest time in the world of the year.
67.
Rupp slowed after Mo Farah's fall to check his condition and finished in fifth place with a time of 27:08.92.
68.
Mo Farah held off the lead he had set and finished with a time of 13:03:30, making it only the second time someone has retained the 5000m and 10,000m Olympic titles, after Lasse Viren of Finland in 1972 and 1976.
69.
Mo Farah remained unbeaten in 2016 in the 3000m as well as in six races over the 10,000m and 5,000m distances.
70.
Mo Farah announced that he would switch from track events to the marathon after the 2017 World Championships in Athletics.
71.
Mo Farah won the 10,000m event, and came second in the 5,000m event after Ethiopia's Muktar Edris.
72.
Mo Farah won his final two track events, in the Diamond league, in Birmingham and Zurich.
73.
On 20 August 2017, Mo Farah again reiterated his decision to move to the marathon full-time, and caused headlines when he announced after running his last 10,000m race on British soil at the Muller Grand Prix in Birmingham that he would never again run in a GB vest.
74.
On 10 September 2017, Mo Farah won the Great North Run for a record fourth consecutive time.
75.
Mo Farah finished in 1:00:06,6 seconds ahead of Jake Robertson.
76.
In March 2018, in preparation for the London Marathon, Mo Farah won the inaugural London Big Half Marathon, his first race in six months.
77.
On 22 April 2018, Mo Farah came third in the London Marathon in a time of 2:06:22, comfortably beating the British record of 2:07:13 set by Steve Jones in 1985.
78.
On 9 September 2018 Mo Farah won the Great North Run for a record-extending fifth consecutive time.
79.
At the Chicago Marathon Mo Farah claimed his inaugural gold medal in the marathon distance and in the process set a new European record of 2 hours 5 minutes and 11 seconds, an improvement by 37 seconds.
80.
In February 2019, Mo Farah announced he planned to run again in the London Big Half Marathon in March 2019.
81.
Mo Farah has confirmed that he may run in the 10,000 metres at the World Championships in Doha in late 2019, although this would depend on the result of the 2019 Big Half Marathon.
82.
On 10 March 2019, Mo Farah won his second London Big Half Marathon, and again hinted at running the 10,000m at the World Championships in October 2019.
83.
On 8 September 2019, Mo Farah won the 2019 Great North Run for a record sixth consecutive time in a new Personal best of 59:07.
84.
On 29 November 2019, Mo Farah announced via his YouTube channel, his plan to return to the track to defend his 10,000 m Olympic title at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic games.
85.
Mo Farah stated he would put his marathon career on hold while he returned to track oriented training.
86.
On 4 September 2020, Mo Farah set the men's all-time record for the one hour run at the 2020 Diamond League meeting in Brussels, Belgium, covering 21,330 metres, breaking Haile Gebrselassie's record of 21,285 metres set at Ostrava, Czech Republic on 27 June 2007.
87.
Mo Farah spent several weeks at altitude training in Ethiopia, before competing at the Djibouti International Half Marathon.
88.
Mo Farah finished in eighth place in a time of 27:50.64, this result broke his undefeated streak in the 10,000m from 2011 to 2021.
89.
On 25 June 2021, Mo Farah failed to qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games managing to run only a 27:47.04 for the 10,000m at the Manchester Regional Arena, despite this time being a stadium record.
90.
Mo Farah adopted the move following a television appearance in May 2012 opposite sports presenter Clare Balding, on the panel game show A League of Their Own.
91.
The host James Corden suggested to the panelists that they should think of a new dance to mark Mo Farah's winning celebration, and Balding subsequently came up with the "M" gesture called "Mobot".
92.
Mo Farah has since used the pose as part of a charity to raise funds for his foundation.
93.
In July 2022, Mo Farah revealed his birth identity as Hussein Abdi Kahin.
94.
Shortly after, Mo Farah says he was brought to the UK by a woman he did not know, and told to use the name Mohamed Mo Farah, taken from another child.
95.
Aged 12, Mo Farah was allowed to start school and he later confided in his PE teacher, who contacted social services who arranged for Mo Farah to be fostered by another family.
96.
Mo Farah and his wife have twin daughters called Aisha and Amani, born in August 2012.
97.
From 2011 to 2017, Mo Farah lived with his family in Portland, Oregon, US so that he could train full-time with the Nike Oregon Project.
98.
Mo Farah is a Muslim, and is an active supporter of the Muslim Writers Awards.
99.
Mo Farah is a fan of Arsenal FC, and has trained with its first team squad.
100.
Mo Farah has indicated a desire to become a fitness coach at the Emirates Stadium in Holloway once he retires so as to improve its conditioning record.
101.
Olympic memorabilia featuring and signed by Mo Farah has been auctioned off to raise funds for the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
102.
Mo Farah often used money transfer operators to send remittances to family, and some of the world's largest organisations and charities, including the UN and his own foundation, likewise paid staff and channelled funds through these services.
103.
Mo Farah has expressed support for research into brain tumours.
104.
On 7 August 2017, Mo Farah became a global ambassador for Marathon Kids.
105.
Mo Farah has endorsement deals with a number of companies, including PACE Sports Management, Nike, Lucozade, Quorn, Bupa and Virgin Media.
106.
In December 2013, Mo Farah signed a marketing deal with Quorn, part of a multimillion-pound campaign aimed at doubling the firm's sales.
107.
Mo Farah led television advertisements for Quorn's vegetarian forms of protein, with the campaign scheduled to last throughout the following year.
108.
In March 2018, Mo Farah posted a video on Instagram depicting what he alleges to be racial harassment at Munich Airport.
109.
In July 2012, Mo Farah successfully completed the final game of The Cube on an episode of a 2012 celebrity series in which British gold medallist athletes competed for charity.
110.
Mo Farah is to date the only person to win the top prize on the UK version of the show.
111.
In November 2020, it was announced that Mo Farah would take part in the twentieth series of I'm a Celebrity.
112.
Mo Farah became the eighth celebrity to be eliminated on 2 December 2020 alongside AJ Pritchard.
113.
In July 2022, the BBC documentary The Real Mo Farah revealed a true account of Farah's childhood.
114.
In November 2022, it was announced that Mo Farah would take part in the Taskmaster "New Year Treat III".
115.
In July 2017, the Russian hacking group Fancy Bears leaked a database from International Association of Athletics Federations that purportedly showed that Mo Farah had been suspected of doping in 2016.
116.
The investigation was the subject of an episode of BBC's Panorama in which it was revealed Mo Farah repeatedly denied having L-carnitine injection prior to the 2014 London Marathon to the United States Anti-Doping Agency in 2015, but changed his account of what happened shortly afterwards.