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Mo Farah exclusive: My Salazar regret, Olympic ambition and why Eliud Kipchoge is beatable
Sir Mo Farah has admitted for the first time that he would have walked straight out of Alberto Salazar’s training camp had he known the full detail of the anti-doping report into his disgraced former coach.
In a wide-ranging interview in which he outlined his hopes for an unprecedented third successive Olympic 10,000-metre title, and said that he could return to the marathon and even beat Eliud Kipchoge, Farah addressed the scandal surrounding Salazar’s Nike Oregon Project. Salazar, who coached Farah between 2011 and 2017, was found guilty last October of three offences by the United States Anti-Doping Agency: trafficking testosterone, administering a prohibited intravenous infusion and tampering with the doping control process.
“In myself, if I had known the outcome of what was going to be, I would have been the first one out,” said Farah. “I just wish that had come out quicker. That’s the bit that’s annoying. I wish I had known quicker. It would have been out – zap, done – don’t tolerate that. I believe in clean sport. As an athlete, [I] don’t tolerate any of that and just continue to work hard. You have got to be honest with yourself – there is nothing that I would change.”
The World Anti-Doping Agency intends to investigate athletes from Salazar’s Nike Oregon Project and potentially retest past samples. Farah, who has never failed a drugs test, says that there is nothing directly related to him that could ever be problematic in any future investigation. “Not at all,” he said. “I don’t think there has ever been a problem for me. I am very honest, probably one of the most tested athletes. I am happy for all my tests to be retested and to use the samples. That’s all you can do.
“I was out of that [Nike Oregon Project] two years ago. That is quite a while. I believe in hard work. There is no allegation against me. It just follows me. ”
Allegations were first made against Salazar in 2015 but Farah continued to work with him until 2017, the year in which the American was first charged by Usada. Farah says that he has not spoken with Salazar since his former coach was banned from athletics for four years. Salazar has maintained his innocence and lodged an appeal against his ban to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Farah clearly now hopes to draw a line under the issue and has resolved in 2020 to be “even more positive” in his outlook.
“I just have to do what I need to do, work hard, believe, go back to grassroots, go back to the beginning, reconnect to the fun of it,” he said. “That’s what I miss. I do enjoy my sport.”
To see Farah at the Village Hotel in Watford on Thursday for the launch of a charity challenge to raise money for the Youth Sports Trust, and inspire people to get active, was certainly to witness his continued popularity with large sections of the public.
After announcing plans to defend his 10,000m Olympic title rather than run the marathon in Tokyo this summer, he is clearly also hugely enthused by the challenge.
“I am very, very excited,” he said. “It’s just a good buzz. I see the people I used to compete against. I want to get back into it not just to say, ‘Hi, I’m back’, but to do the work and see what I can do. It would be history. To have any five Olympic medals would be incredible.” It was during a training session in Doha, before the Chicago Marathon in October, where he finished eighth, that he decided to return to track competition for the first time since the 2017 World Championships. Farah, who turns 37 in March, had won 10 world and Olympic track gold medals between 2011 and 2017.
“I had that sharpness before Chicago,” he said. “I remember doing one session – I did a great session – and I was, ‘I can’t wait to get back on the track. I’m doing the Chicago marathon but not the Olympics. I want to get back on the track.’
“It’s January now, this is where all the changes happen. I will go to a training camp somewhere in Africa, put in the work, from the work you put in there, that shapes you for 10km and track rather than marathon training. It will not be easy.”
The decision, says Farah, was shaped by a combination of wanting to return to the track but also an honest assessment of where his best Olympic medal chance would be. He particularly highlights the infrequency of marathon races as something he found difficult but, after a European record and victory at the 2018 Chicago Marathon, has no regrets.
He also still does not regard Kipchoge, who has not lost a marathon for almost seven years, as unbeatable. “I have raced against him – he has beaten me, I have beaten him on the track,” said Farah.
“What he is doing in the marathon is unbelievable. It’s what the sport needs, he’s notched up to the next level. He’s showing us the way of what is possible.” Kipchoge’s world record has intensified the debate on shoe technology but Farah, who is sponsored by Nike, pointed to comparable advances in any sport and how he simply wants a “playing field that is fair to everybody at the same time”.
And could Farah ever get to Kipchoge in a marathon? “I always believed that – I still believe that,” he said. “There’s no point talking about it right now because he is so far ahead. At the same time, I never think he is so far ahead. It is possible. There will be a time. There was a time when [Kenenisa] Bekele was winning so many medals and I was: ‘I wish had one medal.’
“Then you end up beating the guy and winning more Olympic medals than him so it’s possible. I’m glad I did it [the marathon switch]. It would have been too easy in a way if it was perfect. I don’t regret anything. It was a good challenge. Totally different, you get out of your comfort [zone]. It think it will take longer: a couple more runs to understand it even more fully.
“I still believe, but it depends on the right race and the right environment. Each marathon I did was totally different.”
Of that difference in the rhythm of marathon racing, Farah said: “In the marathon, it’s six months until the next race. It’s hard for me. Once something happens I want to know what went wrong, analyse it, fix that. How are you going to remember in six months what went wrong?”
Farah, who is also one of a group of high-profile athletes threatening legal action against the British Olympic Association over its “Rule 40” sponsorship restrictions, hopes that talks on Friday will find a resolution. “It is important to athletes’ rights,” he said. "A good solution for Team GB is happy for you, happy for us. Hopefully we will get there – we should do.”