BOL Peter

General
SUDAN TO AUSTRALIA
Born in Sudan, he and his family fled to Egypt when he was age six to escape civil war. The family moved on to Australia about four years later and settled in Toowoomba, Queensland. "It was different in Egypt, a different culture, different people, but the same language which was easy to adjust to. Growing up, my dad would always tell us the stories and the struggles they had. So he always tried to push us a bit harder in whatever we do. Sudan has always had conflict and it was not really a safe place to be. So they saw that the best opportunity was to get their children out of there and work towards a better life. I am pretty grateful to them because all of their circumstances worked to my favour. Life could be a lot different." (worldathletics.org, 04 Nov 2020; rio2016.olympics.com.au, 01 Jul 2016; au.news.yahoo.com, 05 Dec 2015)

EARLY DAYS
While at St. Norbert College in Perth, WA, Australia, former teacher Helen Leahy discovered his talent for running while trying to fill places in a school race. "I had a student say to me, 'Miss, Peter can run'. And I said, 'Peter? Go get him'," Leahy said. "He brought [Peter] back to me and I said, 'Peter, can you run the 400 metres?' and he said, 'How far is that?' and I said, 'That's once around the track' and he said, 'Yes Miss, I can run'. He won by a ridiculous amount and then came the 800 metres and I said, 'Peter, can you run the 800 metres?' And he again said, 'How far is that Miss?' and I said, 'That's two laps around' and he blitzed it by about 100 metres. It was beautiful to watch." With the support of Bol's parents, Leahy and her late father Brian Moore nurtured his running, buying him shoes and signing him up to an athletics club and later helping fund his participation in national competitions. "St Norbert College is where everything started," Bol said. (smh.com.au, 02 Aug 2021)

TRAINING PARTNER
He trains with Australian teammate Joseph Deng, who also has South Sudanese heritage. The pair both grew up in Toowoomba, QLD, Australia. "We represent Australia. But we're definitely South Sudanese as well. It's a part of our culture. We can blend in both cultures so it's a perfect place to be," Bol said. (worldathletics.org, 04 Nov 2020)

OTHER ACTIVITIES
In February 2020 he set up his own business called Peter Bol Pty Ltd. He offers services such as keynote speaking, mentoring, high performance and mindset coaching, personal training, and running coaching. (peterbol.com.au, 16 Oct 2020; LinkedIn profile, 01 Feb 2020)