Due to the ongoing Somali Civil War, athletes have subsequently had difficulty training in Somalia and many have left to represent other nations, such as Mo Farah who has won four gold medals representing Great Britain. No athlete representing Somalia has yet won a medal at an Olympics, nor taken part in a Winter Games.
Abroad, Somali-born athletes have particularly excelled in long-distance running. Somali-born long-distance runners currently representing other countries include:
The Somali Olympic Committee was founded on 12 December 1959, in Mogadishu, by Ali Omar Scego as head of the organisation. It had been hoped that Somalia would be able to take part in the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, Italy, but after Scego was posted as Somalia's ambassador to Belgium, based in Brussels, those who succeeded him were unable to take the nation to the Games and the Committee was entirely abandoned.[1]
The idea was resurrected in 1971, with the national associations of athletics, basketball and football signing up under the Committee's charter. Shortly prior to the 1972 Summer Olympics, it was recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), allowing it to compete.[1]
Although Somalia registered athletes for the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, because of the ongoing famine, it did not participate.[8] They returned once again at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, United States, where they entered four male athletes.[9] That year, Bile recorded the best performance by any Somali athlete at the Olympics so far, finishing sixth in the final of the 1500 metres.[8]
2000s
From the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, onwards, Somalia reduced its contingent at each Games down to two competitors, one male and one female. This change meant that Somalia fielded female athletes for the first time, Safia Abukar Hussein becoming the first women to compete for her country at the Olympics.[2] This still caused some issues due to the perception of women in athletes within Somalia, with Hussein's own father rejecting her for a period over fears that it would prevent her from finding a husband. However, they reconciled prior to the Games.[10]
The 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece, was marked by controversy for Somalia. After Farah Weheliye Addo, the president of the Somali Olympic Committee, was found guilty of embezzling funds from the association footballgoverning bodyFIFA. In response, FIFA banned him for ten years and complained to the IOC. In support, the IOC removed the accreditation for Addo, therefore banning him from the 2004 Games.[11]
One of the Somali entrants at the 2008 Summer Olympics received a great deal of international media attention. Samia Yusuf Omar was a 16 year old sprinter, who had trained at the Mogadishu Stadium and around the city. The determination she showed despite the difficulty and harassment she received by local militia groups in the civil war was described as inspirational in the press. Following the Games, where she came last in her heat of the 200 metres in donated equipment, she fell out of the public eye because she was not interested in being involved in the media.[12]
It had been hoped that Omar would return at the London Games, but when she returned to Somalia after the 2008 Olympics, she was threatened by Islamic militant group Al-Shabaab, and no longer admitted she was an athlete. She wished to compete at the 2012 Games, and so left Somalia and travelled first to Ethiopia,[12] then north to Libya,[16] where she was trafficked and later drowned off the coast while attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea to Italy, where she hoped to find a coach.[17][18] Qadijo Aden Dahir, the Deputy Chairman for Somalia's athletics federation, said that "it's a sad death... She was our favourite for the London Olympics".[19]
Somalia continued to send a one male and one female athlete to the 2012 and the 2016 Summer Olympics.[20][21] Meanwhile, Farah was once again successful at the 2016 Games, winning two further gold medals for Great Britain.[22]
