Mohamed Farah

Nickname

Tojo. (Athlete, 31 Jul 2008)

Hobbies

Relaxing, spending time with his family, listening to music and supporting Arsenal FC. (bbc.co.uk, 26 Aug 2011)

Occupation

Athlete

Family

Wife Tania and daughter Rhianna.

Club name

Nike Oregon Project, Portland, OR, USA

Coach

Alberto Salazar (USA) from 2011 (news.bbc.co.uk, 09 Jun 2011)

Handedness

Right (Athlete, 31 Jul 2008)

Debut

2005 for Great Britain (pacesportsmanagement.com, 15 Mar 2012)

Injuries

In late 2007 a stress fracture of his hip disrupted his training schedule. (telegraph.co.uk, 26 Mar 2008)

He suffered a thigh strain at the 2007 World Cross Country Championships. (BBC Sport, 28 Mar 2007)

He suffered a stress fracture of his pelvis in 2003. (Athlete, 31 Jul 2008)

Additional information

Start of sporting career
He started cross country running in his early teens. (BBC Sport, 26 Jul 2007)

Reason for taking up this sport
He wanted to play football, but his physical education teacher identified his natural talent and used football as an incentive to get him running, setting up 30-minute football matches before taking him to the athletics club. (BBC Sport, 26 Jul 2007)

Ambitions
To win an Olympic gold medal. (guardian.co.uk, 10 Aug 2010)

Training
His main training base is at the Nike Oregon Project in Portland, near Nike's headquarters, but he also does altitude training in Utah, the Kenyan town of Iten and Font Romeu in France. (news.bbc.co.uk, 18 Feb 2011, 09 Jun 2011, 26 Jan 2012)

Most memorable sporting achievement
Taking gold in the 5000m at the 2011 World Championships and winning both the 5000m and 10,000m titles at the 2010 European Championships. (stainesguardian.co.uk, 16 Aug 2010; bbc.co.uk, 04 Sep 2011)

Hero
Former world heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali, Great Britain athletes Paula Radcliffe and Steve Cram, and Ethiopia athlete Abebe Bikila for winning the marathon at the 1960 Rome Olympic Games running barefoot. (telegraph.co.uk, 12 Mar 2007; independent.co.uk, 19 Feb 2011)

Most influential person in career
His school physical education teacher Alan Watkinson. "Alan has always been behind me," he said. "He was the one who spotted me running, brought me on to the running team and found me a club. He made me believe in what I can do." (BBC Sport, 26 Jul 2007)

Superstitions / Rituals
"No pain, no gain. Train hard. The harder you train, the less likely you are to lose." (telegraph.co.uk, 12 Mar 2007)

Sporting philosophy / motto
"I'll do whatever it takes to get close to a medal, to become Olympic champion. You have no choice. If you want to be the best you have to do that. There aren't any mornings when you wake up and think, 'I don't feel like going for a run today'." (bbc.co.uk, 26 Jan 2012)

"If you train with them [Kenyan athletes], mentally you think, 'I can compete with these guys, I know how they do what they do'. It makes you feel stronger. It's like if you're in a football team and you've played with someone before - you know what that player is capable of. They've shown over the years that they're the best in the world by far, but we can compete against them. The mentality is changing now. We can do what they do." (bbc.co.uk, 26 Jan 2012)

Awards
He received the European Athlete of the Year award for 2011. (bbc.co.uk, 05 Oct 2011)

With gold in the 5000m at the 2011 World Championships he became the first British male to win a global long-distance world track title. (bbc.co.uk, 26 Jan 2012)

The British Athletics Writers' Association named him its Male Athlete of the Year in 2006, 2010 and 2011. (bbc.co.uk, 28 Oct 2011)

Named as UK Athletics' Senior Athlete of the Year for 2010. (uka.org.uk, 06 Dec 2010)

General
COACH SWITCH
In early 2011 he announced that he would leave long-time coach Alan Storey and relocate to Oregon in the United States to work with coach Alberto Salazar. "Alberto is someone who I have always seen as a great coach and looked up to. I believe he can just make that difference to get close to a medal. It is a different culture in America, having a coach fulltime there to monitor you, that's what I need, someone to guide me." (news.bbc.co.uk, 18 Feb 2011; independent.co.uk, 19 Feb 2011)

PAUL RADCLIFFE
Great Britain's Paula Radcliffe spotted his talent as a junior, offered to help with funding towards his training and even paid for his driving lessons. She also had a big influence on his silver medal-winning performance at the 2006 European Championships in Gothenburg, Sweden. "I saw Paula an hour before my race at the Europeans when I was warming up," he said. "She said to me, 'Go out and be brave. Just believe in yourself'." (BBC Sport, 12 Jun 2006; independent.co.uk, 19 Feb 2011)

EARLY DAYS
On his first day at secondary school, PE teacher Alan Watkinson taught his class and decided he was going to be difficult. "I thought, 'Hello, we've got an interesting one here'. He was in a lot of trouble in his first year, but he was trying to find an identity for himself. There were lots of opportunities to mess around and he would just play up to that." During football matches however, Watkinson spotted something special in his running style and decided to encourage the talent. He told Farah that he could run for Britain one day and even persuaded the teenager to change schools with him when he was transferred. Farah won the English Schools Cross Country title at his second attempt, for which he earned a football kit from Watkinson. "I think running was the single most important thing by a very, very long way in turning things around for him," Watkinson said. "Running helped his language and his social skills. He became immersed in a social life around his sport, he learned from role models around his sport, and it kept him out of trouble." (independent.co.uk, 19 Feb 2011; bbc.co.uk, 26 Aug 2011)

FROM SOMALIA TO GREAT BRITAIN
He was born and raised in the capital of Somalia, Mogadishu. His comfortable family upbringing was disrupted as the country sank into civil war and as the city became more and more dangerous refuge was sought elsewhere. Eventually he moved to neighbouring Djibouti before heading to Europe to live with his grandmother, who had settled in Amsterdam, but the plans changed. "I was going to stay with her but it didn't quite happen," he said. Instead, he, his father and two younger brothers headed for London. "I was eight at the time. My father was born and bred in Britain, so we came to Britain to spend more time with dad." (independent.co.uk, 29 Jul 2010)

OTHER ACTIVITIES
In September 2011 he made a trip back to his homeland of Somalia to see the devastation caused by Eastern Africa's worst drought in 60 years. Shocked by the conditions he saw and the knowledge that access to clean water, food and clothing was scarce, he and wife Tania launched the 'Mo Farah Foundation' to help raise money and provide long-term solutions for the people in Somalia. (bbc.co.uk, 04 Jul 2011; sportinglife.com, 22 Dec 2011; espn.co.uk, 23 Feb 2012)

Previous Olympics

Beijing 2008