His tactics were described in Athletics Weekly: "(Farah) could run 24 strong laps[14] of the track, which most of his East African rivals could match, before a blistering 400 metre sprint to the line, which none of them could.

[19] He subsequently spent a few years in Mogadishu[20] before, at the age of nine, he was illegally trafficked to the United Kingdom via Djibouti, where he was given the name Mohammed Farah and was forced to work as a domestic servant.

These aspects of his background were not made public until July 2022,[7] and a barrister told him that there was a risk that he might lose his British nationality as it was obtained by misrepresentations; the Home Office, however, assured him that he would not face any repercussions.

[22] Recognising his talent, athletics philanthropist Eddie Kulukundis paid the legal fees to complete Farah's naturalisation as a British citizen, allowing him to travel to competitions without visa issues.

[28][29] Farah's first major title was in the 5000 metres at the 2001 European Athletics Junior Championships,[30] the same year that he began training at St Mary's University, Twickenham.

[38] Farah competed at the 2009 World Championships in Athletics: he was in the leading pack early on in the 5000 metres race and eventually finished seventh – the best by a European runner.

After the championships, he scored a victory in his first road competition over 10 miles, winning the Great South Run in 46:25 to become the third fastest Briton in spite of strong winds.

[47] He then went on to win the 5000 m, beating Jesús España and becoming only the fifth man in the 66-year history of the European Championships to achieve the 5000 m/10,000 m double, and the first for 20 years, following in the footsteps of the Czech Emil Zátopek in 1950, Zdzislaw Krzyszkowiak of Poland in 1958, Finland's Juha Vaatainen in 1971 and Salvatore Antibo, of Italy, in 1990.

[53] In February 2011, Farah announced that he would be relocating to Portland, Oregon to work with new couch Alberto Salazar, train alongside Galen Rupp, and avoid the attention of the British tabloids.

On 3 June 2011, at a Diamond League meeting in Eugene, Oregon, Farah won the Prefontaine Classic's 10,000 m event in 26:46.57, setting a new British and European record.

[citation needed] Farah had in fact been more strongly favoured to take the 10,000 m title, but was narrowly beaten in a last lap sprint by Ethiopian Ibrahim Jeilan.

Following the race, Dave Moorcroft, former 5000 metres world record holder, hailed Farah as "the greatest male distance runner that Britain has ever seen".

On 23 August 2012, Farah returned to the track at a Diamond League meet in Birmingham, where he capped off a winning season with another victory over a distance of two miles (3.2 km).

[70][71] The move was met with anger by many in the general public, including erstwhile Minister of Sports Gerry Sutcliffe, who felt that Farah instead deserved a higher accolade.

[81] Farah became only the second man in history to win long-distance titles at successive editions of the Olympics and World Championships, after Kenenisa Bekele's 2008–09 feat.

[95] On 26 March, Farah received a bronze medal in the 2016 IAAF World Half Marathon Championships in Cardiff, finishing in 59:59, less than one second ahead of Abayneh Ayele.

[106] His ninth global title, the 5000m in Rio, made him surpass Kenenisa Bekele as the most frequent winner of gold in history for major long-distance events.

[129] This possibility was later confirmed by Neil Black, performance director of British Athletics, who has said that Farah had received financial backing from the National Lottery in anticipation for both his participation in the Championships, as well as for the Tokyo Olympics.

On 25 June 2021, Farah failed to qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games managing to run only a 27:47.04 for the 10,000m at the Manchester Regional Arena, despite this time being a stadium record.

The host James Corden suggested to the panelists that they should think of a new dance to mark Farah's winning celebration, and Balding subsequently came up with the "M" gesture called "Mobot".

Other athletes at the wedding included Paula Radcliffe, Steve Cram, Hayley Yelling, Jo Pavey, Mustafa Mohamed and Scott Overall, who was an usher.

Farah often used money transfer operators to send remittances to family, and some of the world's largest organisations and charities, including the UN and his own foundation, likewise paid staff and channelled funds through these services.

[162] In March 2013, Farah, singer Robbie Williams, and a number of other celebrities also urged the Chancellor, George Osborne to clamp down on global corporations that avoid paying taxes in poor countries in which they operate.

[169] In 2012–2013, Farah intimated that he had been stopped a number of times by U.S. Customs officials under suspicion of being a terrorist, which he attributed to confusion between his full name "Mohamed" and a computerised check-in process.

[170] After U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order temporarily suspending the immigration of Somali-born U.S. permanent residents, Farah made a statement on his Facebook account stating that "I will have to tell my children that Daddy might not be able to come home.

[172] In July 2012, Farah successfully completed the final game of The Cube on an episode of a 2012 celebrity series in which British gold medallist athletes competed for charity.

It follows Farah with his wife and son Hussein as he investigates his past, reuniting with his Somali family and the woman who raised him after he escaped domestic servitude.

[citation needed] In July 2017, the Russian hacking group Fancy Bears leaked a database from International Association of Athletics Federations that purportedly showed that Farah had been suspected of doping in 2016.

[179] In October 2019, Mo Farah's former coach Alberto Salazar and Nike Oregon Project doctor Jeffrey Stuart Brown[180][181] both received four-year bans from athletics for the trafficking of testosterone, the prohibited use of L-carnitine, and tampering with doping controls.

[182] The investigation was the subject of an episode of BBC's Panorama in which it was revealed Farah repeatedly denied having L-carnitine injection prior to the 2014 London Marathon to the United States Anti-Doping Agency in 2015, but changed his account of what happened shortly afterwards.