Sport
Somalia at the Olympics: every Games and every athlete since 1972
Somalia has sent athletes to 11 Summer Olympic Games, from Munich 1972 to Paris 2024, and has not yet won a medal. Its best result is Abdi Bile's sixth place in the 1,500 metres at Atlanta 1996. In all, 23 Somali Olympians have run for the country, and one, the boxer Ramla Ali, has fought for it.
The short record
Somalia has competed at the Summer Olympics of 1972, 1984, 1988, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2020 and 2024. It has never taken part in the Winter Games and has not won an Olympic medal (Olympedia, Somalia).
- Men and women: until Tokyo 2020 every Somali Olympian was a track and field athlete: 17 men and 5 women. At Tokyo, Somalia entered a boxer for the first time (Olympedia).
- Best result: Abdi Bile, sixth in the 1,500 metres final at Atlanta 1996 (Olympedia, 1996).
- Best result by a woman: the boxer Ramla Ali, equal ninth of 21 in the featherweight division at Tokyo 2020 (Olympedia).
- Largest team: seven athletes, at Los Angeles 1984 (Olympedia, 1984).
The Olympic committee and the first try
A Somali National Olympic Committee was first formed on 12 December 1959, but the project was abandoned. A new committee was formed in 1971 and was recognised by the International Olympic Committee on 22 August 1972, at the IOC Session in Munich (Olympedia). Wikipedia names Ali Omar Scego as head of the 1959 committee, with the hope of sending a team to Rome 1960; the effort stopped after he was posted to Brussels as ambassador (Somalia at the Olympics, Wikipedia).
The Games Somalia missed
- 1976 Montreal: Somalia joined the boycott by 28 mostly African countries, after the IOC let New Zealand compete despite its rugby tour of apartheid South Africa (Somalia at the Olympics, Wikipedia).
- 1980 Moscow: Somalia joined the United States-led boycott over the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan (Somalia at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Wikipedia).
- 1992 Barcelona: Somalia entered but did not compete. Olympedia says this was "probably because of the famine in the country"; Wikipedia notes it still took part in the opening ceremony (Olympedia; Wikipedia).
Every Games, every athlete
Results are as recorded by Olympedia. "Heat" means the athlete went out in the first round unless stated.
| Games | Athletes and events | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 1972 Munich | Mohamed Aboker (800 m, 1,500 m); Abdi Gulet (10,000 m); Jama Awil Aden (marathon); Abdullah Noor Wasughe (high jump) | Aboker 10th in his 1,500 m heat; Gulet did not start; Aden did not finish; Wasughe equal 33rd |
| 1984 Los Angeles | Ibrahim Okash (400 m); Abdi Bile (800 m, 1,500 m); Jama Aden (800 m, 1,500 m); Ali Mohamed Hufane (5,000 m); Mohiddin Mohamed Kulmiye (10,000 m); Ahmed Mohamed Ismail and Abdul Lahij Ahmed (marathon) | Bile reached the 800 m second round; Ismail 47th and Ahmed 73rd in the marathon |
| 1988 Seoul | Ibrahim Okash (800 m); Jama Aden (1,500 m); Aboukar Hassan Adani (5,000 m); Kulmiye and Ismail (marathon) | Okash reached the 800 m third round (semi-final); Kulmiye 91st in the marathon |
| 1996 Atlanta | Ibrahim Mohamed Aden (800 m); Abdi Bile (1,500 m); Aboukar Hassan Adani (5,000 m); Abdi Isak (marathon) | Bile 6th in the final; Isak 110th |
| 2000 Sydney | Ibrahim Mohamed Aden (1,500 m); Safia Abukar Hussein (400 m) | Hussein was Somalia's first woman Olympian |
| 2004 Athens | Abdulla Mohamed Hussein (400 m); Fartun Abukar Omar (100 m) | Heats |
| 2008 Beijing | Abdinasir Ibrahim (5,000 m); Samia Yusuf Omar (200 m) | Heats |
| 2012 London | Mohamed Mohamed (1,500 m); Zamzam Mohamed Farah (400 m) | Heats |
| 2016 Rio | Mohamed Mohamed (5,000 m); Maryan Muse (400 m) | Heats |
| 2020 Tokyo | Ali Idow Hassan (1,500 m); Ramla Ali (boxing, featherweight) | Ali equal 9th |
| 2024 Paris | Ali Idow Hassan (800 m) | 8th in his heat; did not start the repechage |
Sources: Olympedia 1972, 1984, 1988, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2020, 2024.
Paris 2024
Somalia's team in Paris was one man, Ali Idow Hassan, on a wild card in the 800 metres. He was the flag bearer at the opening ceremony. On 7 August he ran 1:48.72 at the Stade de France, eighth of nine in his heat, then did not start the repechage the next day (World Athletics results; Olympedia 2024). Hiiraan Online reported that the Olympic committee left out Abdullahi Jama Mohamed, who had won 5,000 metres silver at the 2023 African Games (Hiiraan Online, July 2024).
Youth Olympic Games
| Games | Athletes | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 Singapore | Abdulahi Kulow (1,000 m); Hani Abdirahman Muse (400 m) | Kulow 19th; Muse did not finish |
| 2014 Nanjing | Ahmed Hassan (800 m); Maryan Muse (200 m, mixed relay) | Hassan did not start; Muse ran in a mixed international relay team, 59th |
| 2018 Buenos Aires | Yusuf Ali Abdirashid (1,500 m); Jiijo Hassan Mohamed (400 m) | Abdirashid 19th |
| 2026 Dakar | Two male athletes listed by Olympedia |
Sources: Olympedia 2010, 2014, 2018, Somalia overview.
Somali-born Olympians for other countries
Many Somali-born runners compete for other nations. Wikipedia lists Mo Farah (Great Britain, four Olympic golds), Bashir Abdi (Belgium), Abdi Nageeye (the Netherlands), Mohammed Ahmed (Canada), Abdihakem Abdirahman and Hassan Mead (United States), Mustafa Mohamed (Sweden) and Abdi Hakin Ulad (Denmark) (Somalia at the Olympics, Wikipedia). At Paris 2024 Bashir Abdi won marathon silver for Belgium (Hiiraan Online, August 2024).
Read more
Sources
- Olympedia, Somalia · olympedia.org
- Olympedia, 1996 · olympedia.org
- Olympedia, 1984 · olympedia.org
- Somalia at the Olympics, Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org
- Somalia at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org
- Olympedia 1972 · olympedia.org
- 1988 · olympedia.org
- 2000 · olympedia.org
- 2004 · olympedia.org
- 2008 · olympedia.org
- 2012 · olympedia.org
- 2016 · olympedia.org
- 2020 · olympedia.org
- 2024 · olympedia.org
- World Athletics results · worldathletics.org
- Hiiraan Online, July 2024 · hiiraan.com
- Olympedia 2010 · olympedia.org
- 2014 · olympedia.org
- 2018 · olympedia.org
- Hiiraan Online, August 2024 · hiiraan.com
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