The four-time Olympic medalist, Mo (Mohamed) Farah, revealed that he immigrated to Britain from Djibouti during his childhood under the name of another child.
“Actually I’m not the person you know,” the runner said in a BBC documentary called “The Real Mo.”
The first Briton to win four gold medals in the track and field, confirmed that his children inspired him to face his past openly.
He indicated that he was born in Somaliland, northern Somalia, and that his real name is Hussein Abdi Kahin, adding, “Despite what I said earlier, my parents never lived in the United Kingdom.”
He said he was four years old when his father was killed in the civil war, adding, “My family was torn apart, separated from my mother and brought to the UK illegally under the name of another child named Mohammed Farah.”
In the documentary, Farah described that he thought he was heading to Europe to live with his relatives, and recalled passing through a passport checkpoint in Britain in the name of Muhammad at the age of nine after he traveled with a woman he did not know previously.
“I had numbers to call my relatives, but when we got to her house, the lady took them from me, tore them in front of me and threw them in the trash. At that moment, I realized I was in trouble,” he added.
The athlete took the filming team on a tour of his childhood home in east London, and described “not great memories” as he was not treated like a member of the family.
Finally, Farah told his mentor, Alan Watkinson, the truth and moved in with his mother’s friend, who had taken care of him for seven years.
Watkinson applied for Farah’s citizenship in a “protracted” process, and was finally granted citizenship in 2000.