EISA MOHAMMED Jamal Abdelmaji

General
LEAVING SUDAN
His father was killed in 2003 after an attack on Barde, their village in Western Sudan. Jamal Abdelmaji tried to escape the country on several occasions in his early teens but was turned back at the border. He managed to leave in 2010 and made his way to Israel. He was taken into custody at the Israeli border, before being sent to a holding camp. He was then released and given a one way ticket for a bus bound for Tel Aviv, where he slept in a park until a fellow Sudanese refugee let him move into a one bedroom apartment with seven others. "It was crazy - there was one bed! But at least I was with other people and we were in the same situation." (olympics.com, 06 Jun 2021)

OLYMPIC SUPPORT
After settling in Tel Aviv, Israel, he began working as a painter. He would also play football for fun before one of his friends encouraged him to try athletics. For a while, he combined running with his job so he could send money home to his family but in 2017 he was awarded an Olympic Solidarity Scholarship, which allowed him to train full-time. "When you see terrible things happen to you at a young age - things that are really much harder than what you might be going through at the moment - and you made it through them, it makes it easier to overcome obstacles. You know you'll get through these things too. Running is giving me the chance to compete, to travel, to improve my life and help my family. If I wasn't part of the refugee team, I would never be able to chase my dreams." (olympics.com, 06 Jun 2021; worldathletics.org, 05 Apr 2020, 20 Jun 2019)

OCCUPATION
He works as a massage therapist at Alley Runners Club in Tel Aviv, Israel. He also lives with Alley Runners volunteer Hili Avinoam in exchange for taking care of her apartment building. (olympics.com, 06 Jun 2021; worldathletics.org, 12 Jan 2021; haaretz.com, 04 Jul 2020)