2025 Hall of Fame Feature: Mohammed Ahmed

At first blush, Mohammed Ahmed wanted nothing to do with the men’s distance running programs at Wisconsin.

Born in Somalia and raised in Kenya, Ahmed moved with his family to St. Catharine’s, Ontario, when he was 10 years old. Given the divergent weather in Canada, he made it known to Mick Byrne, the UW men’s cross-country coach at the time, that he was looking for a warmer place to go to college.

“I said, ‘Man, I’m not interested,’’ Ahmed said. “I see the program and how good it is and how accomplished it is and its tradition. But it’s too cold. I’m from Canada. I wanted to go somewhere warm. I had no intentions of going there.’’

Not only did Byrne calmly tell Ahmed that he would be a great fit for the Badgers, so did Simon Bairu, the two-time NCAA individual champion from UW by way of Regina, Saskatchewan, prompting Ahmed to agree to an official recruiting visit.

“It was a cold winter day in December, and it was finals week,’’ Ahmed recalled. “There were no football games, no basketball games, no hockey games. Everybody was getting ready for finals.

“I didn’t have the fanciest recruiting experience of all the places I’ve been, but I really connected with the guys, who were all down-to-earth dudes.’’

At one point during his visit, Ahmed caught himself studying a display of school records near the UW locker room for track and cross country. He couldn’t help but be impressed by the history of long-distance standards set in the outdoor 3,000 meters (Chris Solinsky, 7:36.90), 5,000 (Solinsky, 13:12.24) and the 10,000 Tim Nelson (28:04.76).

“All that just spoke to me a little bit,’’ Ahmed said. “I left that recruiting trip kind of convinced that I wanted to sign with Wisconsin. Mick told me to go visit the other schools to make sure it’s what I wanted. I came back to the tradition, the beauty of the campus, and the guys.’’

Byrne said Ahmed came to cherish his teammates and vice versa.

“His teammates made him who he is,’’ Byrne said, “They made him better, helped him adapt to the school and the challenges of college. He found great peace and great companionship with his teammates. They were a very, very special group.

“That’s what Moh was looking for. I guess he felt that on his recruiting trip. They really took care of each other, looked after one another. I’m not so sure you see that today.’’

Later this year, Ahmed will be inducted into the UW Athletic Hall of Fame as the most accomplished distance runner in program history. He’s qualified for the Summer Olympics four times (2012, ’16, ’21 and ’24) and competed in the World Championships on six occasions (2013, ’15, ’17, ’19, ’22 and ’23). He is the first Canadian to medal in the 5,000 in those two prestigious events (bronze in 2019 and silver in 2021).

Yet Ahmed will tell you that his greatest triumph – his proudest achievement to date – came in November of 2011, when he helped the Badgers to their fifth and most recent NCAA cross country team championship.

“I’ve accomplished a lot during my career,’’ Ahmed said. “I rank that national team title as high if not even higher than (winning) any of those major medals.’’

Ahmed placed fifth overall while UW finished with 97 points. Elliot Krause placed 17th, Ryan Collins was 23rd and Reed Connor wound up 34th to earn first-team All-America honors.

“We knew we could win the national title that year,’’ Ahmed said. “We were ranked in top four at the outset. We felt we were the best team. We felt that we could win.

“Those guys are like my brothers. The journey we had was indescribable.’’

Byrne said Ahmed has definitely raised the bar for Wisconsin track athletes. Yet Ahmed still isn’t sure he deserves a spot in such a prestigious venue. He recounted the call from UW athletic director Chris McIntosh in which Ahmed reacted to his induction humbly.  

“My first words were like, ‘I don’t know what I did to deserve it, but I’m highly honored for sure,’’’ Ahmed said. “I feel the Wisconsin Hall of Fame is probably one of the toughest halls of fame to get inducted to.

“I’m definitely filled with a lot of gratitude. It’s cliché, but I don’t have a lot of words. It means a lot for sure.’’

Ahmed’s current coach, Jerry Schumacher - a former UW distance runner who coached the Badgers to the NCAA men’s cross country team title in 2005 - is now the track and cross-country coach at Oregon. He is regarded as one of the top distant coaches in the world and defined Ahmed in glowing terms.

“You can’t even sum him up in an easy way,’’ Schumacher said. “When you get an athlete who encompasses the gifts and talents it takes to be an Olympic silver medalist and a world bronze medalist and the Canadian record-holder at just about every long-distance event, that’s hard enough just to be of that type of ability and talents. But then you have to have the work ethic to use to that ability and talent.

“Moh has the work ethic, the talent and then to boot it all, he’s just one of the best people on the planet. From a character standpoint, how do you have all that wrapped up into one person?

“There isn’t a single person who doesn’t like the guy. It’s going to be sad when he’s eventually done. I’m going to try and keep him going forever, of course.’’

BEST OF THREE

One: Ahmed continues to live in Eugene, Oregon, and train with Schumacher with an eye toward qualifying for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

Fewer than 1,000 athletes, including 648 men, have participated in at least five Olympic Games from Athens, Greece in 1896 to Paris, France in 2024. Another 229 have gone on to qualify for six Olympics.

Schumacher noted that Ahmed will be 37 when the Games are staged in Los Angeles, so what about a sixth? 

“I think it’s been brought up in our little circle of conversations and, honestly, it’s always followed by a lot of laughter,’’ Schumacher said. “But I know the wheels are still turning on that.

“It comes down to ‘Does he have the desire and motivation.’ I know he does right now. But eight years from now? We’ll see. He’s a special one for sure.

“We’ll have to cross that bridge once we get to five, but I wouldn’t put (six) past him.’’

Two: What was the most important lesson Ahmed learned at UW? “During my time at Wisconsin, I became pretty studious,’’ he said. “The big lesson was to take advantage of that. I tried to utilize all the resources that were available to me. It was about finding that balance.

“Sometimes I did a decent job of being locked in, not taking short cuts in the classroom. It’s a tough university. You can’t ease off at any point. You have to find that balance, full gas on all fronts.’’

Ahmed studied political science and international studies. He said the Memorial Library was one of his favorite spots on campus.

“I loved that place,’’ he said. “There’s something about going to that place. It’s at the footsteps of State Street. If you want to hang out with your friends you can do that around that area. You can be studious in one of those cubicles. I spent a lot of time there.’’

Which resulted in a well-rounded student-athlete.

“I was stimulated academically,’’ Ahmed said. “I felt my brain was exercised as much as my body was.’’

Three: Ahmed credits UW learning specialist Jay Bradbury, among others, for helping him in his academic pursuits.

“He played one of the biggest roles for sure,’’ Ahmed said. “He helped me answer a lot of the questions that I had and I had so many. I had so many intellectual conversations with this man. I felt like he helped guide me and helped me fill the gaps wherever they were.’’