AHMED Mohammed

General
CLOSE TO QUITTING
Having won bronze in the 5000m at the 2019 World Championships in Doha, Qatar, he revealed he had considered quitting athletics after graduating from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2014. However, coaches Jerry Schumacher and Pascal Dobert persuaded him to persevere with distance running and relocate to Portland, Oregon, where he joined Bowerman Track Club. "I was very close to walking away from the sport upon completing my collegiate career at Wisconsin. I had been to the Olympics and world championships, and it seemed very little was left for me to seek besides unfulfilled potential. Jerry and Pascal saw that and reached out. At the 11th hour I decided to give it a go for at least a year in Portland and see what comes of it. Jerry and Pascal's belief in me has been the difference." (Instagram profile, 09 Oct 2019; bcathletics.org, 16 Mar 2018)

ROUGH AND TUMBLE
He was often told he was too skinny to be an athlete while he was in high school and, although he has tried gaining weight in the past, he believes it is just his natural body shape. He also feels that distance running should not necessarily be seen as a non-contact sport just because of the athletes' physiques. "There's a lot of injuries in running. People don't consider track and field a contact sport, but there's a lot of bumping and barging and pushing and spiking, and for me I have such a long raking stride that I run into the back of the runners that are ahead of me, and I've acquired lot of spike marks in my legs." (CBC Sports YouTube channel, 26 Jun 2018)

FROM SOMALIA TO CANADA
He was born in Mogadishu, Somalia, but spent the first 10 years of his life in Kenya. He moved to Canada just before his 11th birthday. (runningmagazine.ca, 08 Jun 2016)

He became the first athlete representing Canada to win a medal in the 5000m at the world championships by claiming bronze at the 2019 edition of the tournament in Doha, Qatar. (SportsDeskOnline, 16 Jan 2020; cbc.ca, 06 Oct 2019)

He was the first Canadian to run the 5000m in under 13 minutes, clocking 12:58.16 at the 2019 Diamond League event in Rome, Italy. (SportsDeskOnline, 16 Jan 2020; runningmagazine.ca, 30 Sep 2019)