Mo Farah loses a 100m race to a dad wearing jeans

The four-time Olympic champion over 5,000m and 10,000m, Mo Farah, hasn’t completely stopped racing on the track. The 39-year-old revealed on the Ainslies’ Performance People podcast that he recently came third in a 100m dads’ race at one of his kids’ schools—losing to a dad who was racing in jeans.

Farah told the podcast that came to win and he initially thought he came second, but his wife, Tania, who’s also a runner, said he was third (and that he even wore his track spikes).

“He’s not a sprinter—that’s what it is. The parents’ race is always 100 metres,” said Tania. 

The dad who won the race in jeans and beat Farah still dines out on his achievement to this day. “We aren’t hearing the end of it,” said Tania. “People just assume Mo can run fast. What most do not realize is his speed is sustained at a distance over 100m.”

Farah said the proud race winner frequently tags him on social media.

Although arguably the greatest British male distance runner in history has stopped professionally competing on the track, he is on the elite list for the 2023 London Marathon. While he has yet to say explicitly when he will retire, he told The Guardian that this season will likely be his last.

Farah has six world championship titles (all on the track, in the 5,000m and 10,000m) and four Olympic gold medals over the 5,000m and 10,000m from London 2012 and Rio 2016, and is the second runner in history to win the 5,000 and 10,000m at back-to-back Olympic Games. Since 2016, he’s moved up to the marathon, winning Chicago in 2018 and finishing third in London the same year.