Mo Farah: What did you want to be when you were growing up?

What did you want to be when you were growing up?

Originally asked

The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A

This is a standing question in The Guardian's decades-long The Q&A and also recurs independently in career and life interviews.

You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.

Recorded Mo Farah said elsewhere, not written here

A mechanic when I was a little kid, and then, when I came to the UK, I wanted to play professional football.

The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 27 April 2019 source ↗

Others on this question

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David Harewood British actor and presenter

I had no idea. When I was a week away from leaving school, a teacher said, “We’ve been talking in the staffroom and we all think you should be an actor.” I thought, “That’s exactly what I want.” The rest is history.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 2 November 2019 source ↗

Hayley Atwell British American actress

An adult, as quickly as possible. I wasn’t built for the psychological warfare of the playground.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 15 December 2018 source ↗

Vick Hope British television and radio presenter

J-Lo, a foreign correspondent and, at uni, I assumed that someone would tap me on the shoulder and ask me to be in MI6, but it never happened.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 6 August 2022 source ↗

Robert Bathurst English theatre and television actor

Wimbledon champion. I won the title frequently when playing against a pebbledash wall at home in Ireland.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 6 June 2020 source ↗

More from Mo Farah

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Question How close have you come to death? Death & what remains

When I was a kid, travelling from Ethiopia to the UK, the plane door opened, the oxygen masks came down and the plane did an emergency landing in Egypt.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 27 April 2019 source ↗