04 Aug 2021

While Olympic runner Peter Bol just missed out on a medal last night, his insane efforts on the track is something that himself, his family and the whole of Australia are all proud of.

Along with his astonishing achievements, he has broken the 800-metre record twice and rewrote history by becoming the first Australian in 53 years to make an Olympic 800-metres final - go off, Peter! His initials are literally PB and boy, did he hit his personal bests leading up to the race.

 

Born in Sudan, Peter and his family fled the war-torn country when he was four. Lived in a Egyptian refugee camp until he was eight. Arrived in Toowoomba before growing up in Perth. 

Peter had a basketball scholarship in high school (a man of many talents) where a teacher suggested he try out running after a promising 400 metre race in an athletics carnival, a 800 metre cross-country race and this is where his middle-distance running career began.

Moving from Perth to Melbourne to train professionally, Peter trained hard and made personal sacrifices to achieve his best and he’s done just that. 

His story is powerful and inspirational - it represents the unheard stories of those who have struggled and the people who have escaped war-torn countries to live an ordinary life in Australia. 

It represents his family, his hard work, his peers at school that ran beside him and believed in him. It’s for all the people that knew him before the race and backed him from the get go.

Peter is one of the greatest runners to ever represent Australia. While it’s hard to look past the green and gold and separate the boy from his story - his teacher also says it’s “all Peter” and his doing.

“My parents have always been invested in me, they called me a week before and said ‘you’ve already made us proud’ and then my dad said ‘no, I think you’ve actually made all of Australia proud’”, Peter said to Sunrise this morning.

So bloody wholesome and humbling. I’m not crying, you are.

From leading the pace to coming fourth is probably the hardest position to be in - you’re so close but yet so far. In his post-match interview, Peter spoke about his Olympic journey:

"The best part about this is it's been a journey not just by myself, we've had literally the whole nation behind me.”

"And that's power, that's power in sport."