Four-time Olympic champion British athlete of Somali descent Mo Farah said that in fact his name was different and that he entered the UK illegally as a child.
“There’s something about me that you don’t know. It’s a secret I’ve been hiding since childhood. And being able to face the truth and talk about the facts, how it happened, why it happened, is hard. The truth is, I’m not who you think I am. And now, for what it’s worth, I have to tell the real story.”
The athlete’s family was separated when his father died in the war, when he was four years old.
Separated from his mother, he and his brother were sent to live with relatives. He was then smuggled into the UK as an illegal immigrant with a fake passport with his new identity, “Mo Farah”.
The sportsman in the film reveals that when he arrived in the UK, he was forced to do household chores for the family of the woman who brought him to London. “I had all the contact details of my loved ones, and as soon as we arrived at her house, right in front of me, she tore them up and put them in a bin, and at that moment I realized that I I was in trouble,” Farah recalls.
The Olympic legend has revealed he only escaped his dire situation after trusting his PE teacher. He contacted social services, Farah moved in with a classmate’s mother. He remained with this family for the next seven years. The teacher who came to her rescue also helped Farah obtain British citizenship.
The athlete noted that his real name is Hussein Abdi Kahin.
The athlete’s full story will be told shortly on British television in a documentary.
Source : MatchTV
