Mo Farah comes out fighting against unfounded doping smears
With thirteen days to go until the Rio Olympics the athlete hits out against the smears
AFTER a year of finger-pointing and smears over unfounded links to doping, Olympic champ Mo Farah has come out fighting.
The cloud of suspicion hanging over the British distance runner is lifting after unproven claims that his coach, Alberto Salazar, was providing his athletes with performance-enhancing drugs.
Defiant Mo, 33, stood by the Cuban — who strenuously denied the allegations — after it was suggested he violated anti-doping rules and implicated Mo’s training partner, US athlete Galen Rupp.
Now, a new BBC documentary shows Mo doing what he does best, including running 120 miles per week, and he insists his fortunes are purely down to his gruelling regime.
He says: “There’s no secret to what I do. Other people were more talented than me. It’s just hard work and graft.”
But as Mo Farah: Race of his Life shows, the Somali-born hero has always been a fighter.
As a child his time was spent getting into scrapes in the streets of the dirt-poor African neighbourhood where he grew up.
But his incredible story, from the slums to double-gold medallist at London 2012, is one of extraordinary personal sacrifice.
It is why he is so determined that fans and critics see for themselves that it is hard work, rather than performance-enhancing drugs, that has transformed him into a world-beating athlete.
Why would I put my reputation on the line and lose everything that I’ve worked so hard for?
Mo, who has made his blood-test results available and is seen in the documentary going into a doping testing station after breaking the 3,000m British record last month, says: “The training I did [with Alberto] has changed me one or two per cent. And that’s all I needed to win medals.
“Any athlete, no matter who you are, you don’t want to be associated with someone who’s doing something.
“And I’ve said all along, if Alberto has crossed the line, and he’s done something he’s not supposed to do, and they tell me that, then I’m out.
“Why would I put my reputation on the line and lose everything that I’ve worked so hard for?”
Alberto was alleged in a Panorama documentary in June last year to have violated anti-doping rules in 2002 by giving Rupp banned prednisone and testosterone medication, when he was 16.
None of the allegations in the programme related to Mo and Alberto has never been charged.
But Mo’s wife Tania reveals the toll those smears took on her family.
The family have been based in Portland, Oregon, since 2011 after Mo moved there to use the world-class Nike facilities and join Alberto’s roster of athletes.
Tania, 30, says: “It was just awful because you don’t want the children to see any of that and they shouldn’t see that. We felt violated.
“And just so disappointed that your safe haven where you want to be normal, which we are, you are suddenly made to feel very different and a target.
“It sucks. It really does. We take a lot of comfort and we sleep well at night knowing it’s all down to graft and we as a family fully deserve everything that’s come our way.”
The film follows Mo’s tough training schedule, which includes him sleeping in an oxygen tent, running between 12 and 20 miles every day and pushing himself to the brink of collapse.
He spends seven months of the year competing and training at high altitude in the French Pyrenees. He admits there are days when “you wake up and just want to cry”. Those months are spent away from his family.
He has brought up Tania’s daughter Rhianna, 11, since she was four but hates the word “step-daughter”, as “there’s absolutely no difference between her and my other children”.
Two weeks after his success at the London Games, Tania gave birth to twins Aisha and Amani.
Their son, Hussein Mo, arrived last October.
The children are an inspiration to him. He has engraved his two Olympic golds with the names of the twins and is hoping to win two more, one each for Rhianna and Hussein.
My career is so short, you only get one chance and this is my moment
He has also co-created a children’s book, Ready Steady Mo!, inspired by his kids’ love of running, animals and reading. Mo says: “The main struggle for me is missing my son — he’s a few months old — and my twins are starting to ask questions.
“One of them said to me the other day, ‘Why does Daddy run? Can’t he stop and come home now?’
“Oh man, as a parent it’s hard.
“That moment growing up, I can never get it back and it makes me feel sad.
“But my career is so short, you only get one chance and this is my moment.”
The separation also puts a strain on his relationship with Tania, who admits that sometimes she gets a fright when she feels Mo moving about in bed next to her, as she is so used to being alone.
She explains: “It’s such an adjustment when Mo comes back. It’s a nice feeling but I’m scared to let go because I know a few days later I have to rein myself back in again.”
Being away so much also means Mo does not have much chance to keep up with the news at home.
He admits he did not vote in last month’s EU referendum and heard that the country had voted to leave through a British girl at his training ground.
He says: “I was shocked. I couldn’t believe it.
“If I’d voted, I would have voted to be in the EU, but hopefully it will be better. Whatever is best for the country, I guess. I don’t know the ins and outs.
“It’s all crazy. David Cameron’s stepped down and we got a new Prime Minister.
“I’m not a politician guy but I did like David Cameron. I also like Boris Johnson.
“Both of them were very supportive of me and I remember going into Number 10 after the Olympics and meeting David Cameron. It was pretty awesome.”
I don’t know what would have happened if I’d have stayed. I don’t know what I would have done
It is quite the journey for Mo, from Djibouti’s streets to 10 Downing Street.
In the documentary he tells how he and twin brother Hassan used to get up at 5am, aged just seven, to help sell samosas on the streets. The family had moved to Djibouti from Somalia when the lads were aged four.
Mo recalls: “When I was a kid I imagined I lived in this big house. Everything seemed huge. And you come back and it’s tiny.
“I don’t know what would have happened if I’d have stayed. I don’t know what I would have done.”
His parents moved him to London aged eight, separating him from Hassan who was too ill to travel. It was here that his running talent was spotted.
An amazing home video of a teenage Mo shows him shyly admitting that his dream is to run in the Olympics.
Tonight, he returns to the track at the Queen Elizabeth Stadium in Stratford, East London, for the Anniversary Games, the stage for his Olympic triumph and where he will face many of his Rio rivals in the 5,000m.
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With three weeks to go until he runs again in Brazil, he is hoping to repeat his 2012 success but admits it will not be as special as winning in front of a home crowd.
He says: “It’s never going to be the same. Different location, different occasion, different people but hopefully it’ll be a story.
“It’s going to be good but it’s not going to be the same as in London. It can’t get any better than that.”
Farah's proud track record
Mo is the most decorated athlete in the history of UK athletics.
He was made a CBE in 2013 for services to his sport.
He won golds in the 10,000m and 5,000m at the 2012 Olympics, and the 2013 and 2015 World Championships – the only man to have achieved that so-called “triple double”.
He won gold in the 2011 World Championships in the 5,000m and a silver in the 10,000m.
Mo won double gold at the European Championships in 2010 and 2015.
He is also the European record holder for the 1,500m, 10,000m, half-marathon and two miles.
He holds the British record for the 1,500m, 5,000m, 10,000m and half-marathon.
His indoor records include the European 5,000m, the British 3,000m and the world record for two miles.
Mo Farah: Race of His Life, August 4, BBC1, 9pm. Ready Steady Mo!, published by Hodder Children’s Books, is available from July 28, RRP £6.99.