Sir Mo Farah: 'Trump made me an alien'
Through carrying his aching limbs and the hopes of a nation through countless triumphant distance runs, Sir Mo Farah enjoys hero status across the United Kingdom.
But when it comes to the United States, the Somalia-born British athletics legend could be turned away at the border - even though he's lived there for six years.
The double 5,000m and 10,000m Olympic champion is currently training at high altitude in Ethiopia ahead of a race in Birmingham, England, but fears that he won't be able to reunite with his family in Portland, Ore. in mid-March due to president Donald Trump's new guidelines over Muslims entering the country.
The controversial Republican recently imposed a ban on Muslims from several countries travelling to the U.S., and Farah's native Somalia features on that list.
"On Jan. 1 this year, Her Majesty the Queen made me a knight of the Realm. On Jan. 27, President Donald Trump seems to have made me an alien," Farah told the Guardian's Sean Ingle from Ethiopia.
The 33-year-old continued:
I am a British citizen who has lived in America for the past six years - working hard, contributing to society, paying my taxes and bringing up our four children in the place they now call home. Now, me and many others like me are being told that we may not be welcome. It's deeply troubling that I will have to tell my children that daddy might not be able to come home - to explain why the President has introduced a policy that comes from a place of ignorance and prejudice.
I was welcomed into Britain from Somalia at eight years old and given the chance to succeed and realise my dreams. I have been proud to represent my country, win medals for the British people and receive the greatest honour of a knighthood. My story is an example of what can happen when you follow polices of compassion and understanding, not hate and isolation.
Trump's election as president has been widely condemned across the sporting community, with NBA great LeBron James dubbing it a "goofy" decision by U.S. people, and San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich weighing in with his belief that "you really can't believe anything that comes out of his mouth."