Championing Mo Farah –
Mo Farah shot to fame during the 2012 London Olympics and is now a double gold medal winner as a result of winning the rare 5000m and 10,000m double. This has led to Mo becoming one of the 12 nominations for 2012’s Sports Personality of the Year Award (SPOTY).
So who is Mo Farah? Mo was born in Somalia 1983, is currently aged 29 years old and moved to Great Britain at the age of 8 to join the rest of his family. Brought up in England’s capital; London, Mo began to take up running as his teenage years had just begun and throughout his junior career Mo showed enhanced promise and won five English titles.
Farah’s success at the Olympics did not happen by fluke, viewers are often mislead by the media on how hard it is to actually reach the significant high level that Farah has reached for example; Farah’s achievement of winning two track long distance running events escalated him to be the United Kingdom’s greatest ever distance runner. The superlatives mentioned above, have not mentioned the fact the Farah was the first ever British runner to win the ten-thousand metre event at an Olympic games or that Farah joined an illustrious list of Olympian legends to have won the ‘5k/10k double’; a list that consists of five other athletes. Mo Farah stands in his own right of been the only ever athlete to win the ‘5k/10k double’ within his own country. Worthy of been SPOTY?
Personality is also a key aspect of the award, Mo Farah since becoming Olympic champion has featured within numerous media articles, columns and headlines not just for winning the unprecedented achievement of a double Olympic champion but also for the ‘Mobot’. The ‘Mobot’ swept the nation as the pose that best resembles the London 2012 Olympic Games, the impact of the ‘Mobot ‘ even had IAAF male athlete of the year, Usain Bolt mimicking the pose. The pose leads to Farah been able to use the media attention of the ‘Mobot’ and work with Virgin Media so that every video of someone replicating the ‘Mobot’ would raise £2 for Farah’s charity. Farah is a dedicated family man who trains hard; away from his family for a number of weeks leading up to world events but his personality and likeability will also be a key aspect in determining why he should win the SPOTY award.
The SPOTY award though is not only decided on achievements that happened throughout the Olympic Games, but is decided over a year long period, so what else has Mo Farah achieved during 2012? During the European championships in Helsinki won the 5000m Gold medal and is the current holder of the British athletics writers association’s and European athletes of the year awards.
All of the above is more than enough evidence to highlight why Mo Farah should become the SPOTY winner this year, what he has achieved has never been done by any other Olympian. Farah has become a hero, legacy builder, national treasure, role model, the list is endless. The impact the Farah will have on British athletics will not be determined by extrinsic rewards, but by the amount of people Farah has inspired after his performances during 2012. I sincerely hope that Farah gets the recognition he most definitely deserves for his achievements and although the competition is strong from many other ‘great’ athletes, what Mo Farah has achieved might never be replicated again especially from that of a Great British long distance runner.
