by Larry EderWell, the price of being the world’s best distance runner is that everything you do is under a microscope. Per this tory, in the Daily Record, Mo Farah is apparently claiming residency in the U.S., as a way to avoid the increased taxes that his successes have wrought.
Mo Farah, April 2013, Virgin London PC, photo by PhotoRun.net
British taxes are higher than taxes in the US. Many top recording artists in Britain and several top athletes have done this before. Surprised that the Daily Record had not added that to their story.
Mo Farah lives in Teddington, London, when he lives in the UK. But, over the past several years, Mo and his family have resided more of the year in Portland, Oregon, where his training is based.
To me, the story here is multi-leveled. The story of a young athlete, always talented, who between 2007 and 2009 was so frustrated that there were media reports that Farah had even considered ending his career.
But, then, things changed.
In 2010, his European Champ double win hinted at Mo Farah’s talent, and his discussions with Alberto Salazar and Ian Stewart, then UK Endurance mentor, helped him see his career in a new light. By early 2011, Mo Farah was in Portland, Oregon, training with Galen Rupp. Farah’s silver and gold at the 10,000m and 5,000m surprised some in 2011. His 2012 double pleased an entire country and an entire stadium of 80,000 track fans. By 2013, Mo Farah’s killer double, which he earned, step, by sprinting step, showed that he was, and is, the best tactician at his events in the world.
What we have seen is an athlete who has developed a confidence, and a skill at racing that allows him to use his ability to increase speed over the last one thousand meters, like no one else. Mo Farah draws his competitors close, and lets them wear themselves out, then, proceeds to knock the desire out of them over a increasingly fast last thousand meters.
Now, at the pinnacle of his sport, media attention is everywhere. His every decision is scrutinized, and like many, like most of us, he is trying to keep his taxes down. Most of us don’t try and become tax exiles, but most of us do not make the kind of money Mo Farah has made and will make from his talents and hard work.
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To read the story in the UK Daily Record, please see below:
