Jamal Mohammed, a refugee player who ran away from Sudan for Israel runs 170kms every week as a tribute to refugees who ran away for a better quality of life.
In an interview with CNN Sport, he recalls,"I had never done running in my entire life. I just came to Israel and one of my best friends told me. You can run after the ball for three or four hours -- I think you better start running with this Alley Running team.”
Image Source: edition.cnn.com
"At that age, eight or nine, I started to work to represent my siblings," says Mohammed.
"My Dad was gone, I'm the oldest one at home, and I decided to help my siblings. Then I started working ... I feel like I'm the father of this family so I had to go and do something."
Mohammed’s journey was inspiring, but arduous when he left Darfur, the Sudanese province and walked for three days across Egypt's Sinai Desert on foot. His early life was full of hardships and conflicts because his father was killed as one of the Janjaweed during 2004-05 Omar al-Bashir's presidency.
Image Source: edition.cnn.com
In his early years, he took a giant step when he came to Israel even though he had no knowledge of Hebrew or English and just a little bit of Arabic. In his initial days, he used to play football for hours when he created a group Alley Runners for the underprivileged communities.
He further told, "I joined them and then I fell in love with this thing,”
Tegla Loroupe, founder of the @RefugeesOlympic team, explains how the refugee athletes she trains have developed since Rio 2016: https://t.co/r7kLUQKsFJ #WorldRefugeeDay pic.twitter.com/RLeiR9QBCr
— CNN Sport (@cnnsport) June 20, 2020
Finally, his career kicked off last year in the World Cross Country Championships in Aarhus, Denmark, and the World Athletics Championships in Doha, Qatar, as part of the Athlete Refugee Team.
"It's happened, just take it easy, keep training and we'll be back -- that's what I said to myself," says Mohammed of the postponement.
Image Source: edition.cnn.com
"It's my biggest dream to be there to compete at the Olympics with all the best athletes, all the famous athletes. It is a big, big dream. Hopefully it can come true."
On the occasion of the World Refugee comes out the documentary on The Athlete Refugee team and their beginnings. The Athlete Refugee Team was formed in 2015 and made its debut at the 2016 Rio Olympics as 10 athletes originally from Syria, South Sudan, Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of Congo represented the near-70 million refugees around the world.
