Somali-born long-distance runners currently representing other countries include: The Somali Olympic Committee was founded on 12 December 1959, in Mogadishu, by Ali Omar Scego as head of the organisation.

[1] Somalia made their Summer Olympic debut at the 1972 Games in Munich, West Germany, sending three athletes;[2] Mohamed Aboker, Jama Awil Aden in track events and Abdullah Noor Wasughe in the high jump.

This was after the IOC allowed New Zealand to participate in the Games, despite the breach of the international sports boycott of South Africa by the nation's rugby union team shortly before the Olympics.

[4] Prior to the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, Soviet Union, Somalia once again joined in with a boycott of the Games, this time led by the United States over the 1979 invasion of Afghanistan during the Soviet–Afghan War.

This change meant that Somalia fielded female athletes for the first time, Safia Abukar Hussein becoming the first women to compete for her country at the Olympics.

[2] This still caused some issues due to the perception of women in athletes within Somalia, with Hussein's own father rejecting her for a period over fears that it would prevent her from finding a husband.

After Farah Weheliye Addo, the president of the Somali Olympic Committee, was found guilty of embezzling funds from the association football governing body FIFA.

She wished to compete at the 2012 Games, and so left Somalia and travelled first to Ethiopia,[12] then north to Libya,[16] where she was trafficked and later drowned off the coast while attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea to Italy, where she hoped to find a coach.