British world-class runner
Mo Farah: He’s an Olympic champion, world champion, a sir – and he’s not who he says he is
Successes under a false name: Hussein Abdi Kahin aka Mo Farah, four-time Olympic champion and six-time world champion in the 5,000 and 10,000 meters.
© Martin Bureau / AFP
A British TV documentary promises to show “The Real Mo Farah” in the title. What very few might have expected: The real Mo Farah is different than you think. The Olympic champion lives under a false name.
Do the Olympic Games winner lists need to be changed? A certain Mo Farah is listed there as a gold medalist in the long-distance runs over 5,000 and 10,000 meters at the Games in London (2012) and Rio de Janeiro (2016). Farah is no stranger, on the contrary. The Briton is one of the world stars of athletics. The four-time Olympic champion is also a six-time world champion, six-time European champion and two-time European indoor champion – always over the long distances, once also in cross-country skiing. Mo Farah is one of the most successful track and field athletes ever, was knighted by the Queen in 2017 as a Knight Bachelor. But there is one thing Sir Mohammed Farah is not: he is not Mo Farah.
“The truth is I’m not who you think I am,” the 39-year-old admits in a BBC documentary titled “The Real Mo Farah.” will be broadcast on British television on Wednesday. For the first time, the British superstar reveals that he lives in the UK under a false name, according to previously released clips. He was born in 1983 as Hussein Abdi Kahin in Somalia, more precisely: in a region called Somaliland. This has declared itself independent, but has not yet been recognized by any other state apart from Taiwan. The region includes the former colonial territory of British Somaliland, which existed until 1960.
Mo Farah: Smuggled to the UK at the age of nine
Contrary to what he previously stated, his parents never lived in Great Britain, Farah continues to report. Instead, his father died in the civil war. He himself was separated from his mother. As a nine-year-old, he and his twin brother Hassan were smuggled into the United Kingdom after staying with an uncle in neighboring Djibouti. “I was brought to the UK illegally under the name of a child other than Mohamed Farah,” he said. He never questioned the fact that he was given a new name. “As a kid, you don’t question what you’re told,” Farah said in the documentary. The athlete says he knows nothing about the fate of the real Mohamed Farah. He hopes he is doing well, he added.
It was suggested to him by his own children that he now turned to the public, says Farah about his motives for explaining himself. “Family means everything to me and as a parent you teach your children to be honest. But I always felt that I always had this secret, that I could never be myself and never tell what really happened.” It is now important for him to report the truth, Farah continued.
Wife had many questions before marriage
According to the long-distance runner, this truth includes the shock after his arrival in Great Britain. At that time he was suddenly confronted with “another reality”. “I had all my relatives’ contact details, but when we got to her house, the lady there took the note from me and ripped it up right in front of me and threw it in the bin. At that moment, I knew I was in trouble.”
Difficulties that are long gone. But a past that Farah always had to hide, which led to more and more problems. His wife Tania says in the documentary that before their marriage in 2010, she realized “there were a lot of pieces missing from his story.” She didn’t stop asking her future husband questions – until he finally came out with the truth.
Home Office: Farah faces no consequences
And now? Illegal entry, living under a false name, naturalization under false declarations – will this have consequences for Mo Farah? In the BBC documentary, a lawyer warns the athlete that he could now lose his British citizenship as a result of the revelation. Farah himself is concerned about his immigration status. But the worries are apparently unnecessary. According to the British “Guardian”, the Home Office in London confirmed that the sports star had nothing to fear. “No action will be taken against Sir Mo,” the newspaper quoted a ministry spokesman as saying. Speculations to the contrary are wrong.
A happy ending for Hussein Abdi Kahin, who will continue to use the name Mo Farah. What fate the real Mohammed Farah experienced or suffered, whom the sports star addresses directly at the end of the documentary, remains unknown. Mo’s words to Mo are likely to come to nothing.
Sources:BBC, “Guardians”DPA news agency.