From Inside the Games
Four-time Olympic athletics champion Sir Mo Farah has fiercely criticised United States President Donald Trump’s controversial executive order limiting immigration as the sports world seeks to understand possible consequences.
It has, however, now been clarified by the British Foreign Office how Sir Mo and others in his position will supposedly only be affected if travelling to the US from one of the countries specifically targeted.
Trump, who was inaugurated as the 45th President of the United States earlier this month, signed an executive order which prohibits citizens from the seven Muslim-majority countries – Syria, Sudan, Somalia, Yemen, Iraq, Iran and Libya – from entering the country for a 90-day period.
The ruling has been fiercely criticised around the world and Iran has already launched retaliatory restrictions on US nationals.
It is not yet completely clear how extensive the restrictions, which are currently only a 90 day temporary measure, will be.
But citizens from the seven countries have already been prevented from entering the US.
Britain’s Sir Mo, who won 5,000 and 10,000 metres gold medals at the London 2012 and Rio 2016 Olympics, was born in Somalian capital Mogadishu and grew up in neighbouring Djibouti before moving to Britain at the age of eight.
In 2011, he and his family moved to Portland, Oregon in order to train with US coach Alberto Salazar.
He is now a full British national and does not hold a Somalian passport.
The 33-year-old, who is currently at a training camp in Ethiopia, has admitted to being unsure if he will be allowed to return home before the clarification was made later today.