Mo Farah completes historic double-double, winning 5,000-meter gold
Winning gold in the 5,000-meter final Saturday, Britain's Mohamed "Mo" Farah doubled his Olympic wins for double the glory.
In Rio de Janiero, he became the first man in 40 years to win gold medals in both the 5,000- and 10,000-meter races in two separate Olympic Games. His victories in Rio follow wins in both events at the 2012 London Games.
"It's pretty amazing. I never, ever dreamed of someone calling me the greatest," Farah told Australia's Channel 7 after the 5,000-meter race. "All I used to think as a kid was, 'man, if only I could have one medal' and now I've got four medals. I can't quite believe it."
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Farah completed the feat despite tripping in a nerve-wracking incident during the final of the 10,000-meter race one week ago. He recovered, going on to win the event.
The last man to win both distance races in consecutive Olympics was the Finnish runner Lasse Viren at the 1972 Munich and 1976 Montreal Games.
Farah won the 5,000-meter race in 13 minutes, 3.3 seconds. Ethiopia's Hagos Gebrhiwet won silver and Bernard Lagat of the United States won bronze.
American runner Paul Chelimo ended the race in the silver medal position but was later disqualified. It is unclear what his infraction was.
Farah can retire on a true high. He's even got a fan in American gymnast Simone Biles, who posted a photo with the runner calling him the "greatest."
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Farah has said he plans to retire from professional athletics after the world championship in 2017, making Rio his last-ever Olympic Games.
For many, Saturday was farewell to a historic athlete -- and also farewell to the runner's infamous "Mobot" moves.
The Associated Press contributed reporting.
Topics Olympics
Ariel Bogle was an associate editor with Mashable in Australia covering technology. Previously, Ariel was associate editor at Future Tense in Washington DC, an editorial initiative between Slate and New America.
