Metropolitan Police in the United Kingdom have launched an investigation into Mo Farah's claims that he was trafficked to Great Britain and forced into a life of domestic servitude as a nine-year-old.
The four-time Olympic champion runner made his revelations in a BBC documentary, 'The Real Mo Farah', which was aired in the UK on Wednesday evening.
Farah claimed that he was brought to London by a stranger who gave him his assumed name, Mo Farah, and told him that he would never see his family ever again if he told the truth to anyone.
Though the Home Office has confirmed that "no action whatsoever" will be taken against Farah himself, it now looks likely that detectives from Scotland Yard will question a married couple who Farah says forced him to cook, clean, and babysit for them, according to the Daily Telegraph.
"We are aware of reports in the media concerning Sir Mo Farah. No reports have been made to the MPS at this time," said a Met spokesman.
"Specialist officers have opened an investigation and are currently assessing the available information."
The athlete, whose real name has now come to light as Hussein Abdi Khain, had previously said he left his homeland Somalia aged eight to meet up with his father in London after their parents sent three of six children there in search of a better life.
"Most people know me as Mo Farah, but it’s not my name or it’s not the reality," he explained in the documentary.
"The real story is I was born in Somaliland, north of Somalia, as Hussein Abdi Kahin. Despite what I’ve said in the past, my parents never lived in the UK."
Farah said his real father, Abdi, had been killed in the Somali civil war before his mother sent him to live in neighboring country Djibouti with relatives.
Farah was then taken to Britain by a woman, and forced to live with a married couple that he says treated him badly.
At school, however, a PE teacher named Alan Watkinson rescued Farah and helped him obtain British citizenship with his assumed name stolen from another child and used in a fake passport.
Farah only decided to go public after his children encouraged him to do so.
"Family means everything to me and, you know, as a parent, you always teach your kids to be honest, but I feel like I’ve always had that private thing where I could never be me and tell what’s really happened," he explained.
"I’ve been keeping it for so long, it’s been difficult because you don’t want to face it and often my kids ask questions, ‘Dad, how come this?’ And you’ve always got an answer for everything, but you haven’t got an answer for that."
Farah is understood to still be in contact with his real mother, Aisha, plus his siblings in the semi-autonomous region of Somaliland in Somalia.
Aged 39, he announced his retirement from track athletics earlier this month but still plans to run the next London Marathon in October.