Abdihamid Nur

Abdihamid Nur (born October 14, 1998) is a Somali-born American long-distance runner.

Nur was born on October 14, 1998, in Mogadishu, Somalia.

He is the second youngest of eight children.

He has three older brothers, three older sisters, and a younger sister.

His family moved away from Somalia when he was very young due to the country's political instability.

He remembers little of his time there since he was still an infant.

His mother wanted a safer life for them, so she made the decision for them to leave Somalia.

They stayed in Kenya, where their mother owned a shop, for three short years prior to settling in Cairo, Egypt for five years.

Nur was only 4 when they arrived in Egypt.

Then, they immigrated to the United States in 2006 where they first lived in New Mexico for a brief period of time.

However, they relocated to Apple Valley, Minnesota, where they had extended family members near the area.

Their mother was the primary provider for the family.

She worked odd jobs as a janitor and babysitter to financially support them.

They would relocate once again to Phoenix, Arizona, while Nur was about to enter high school in 2013.

Their mother grew tired of the cold climate in Minnesota.

Initially, Nur played soccer as an underclassman at North High School before he ever started running.

He shared that "sports brought [him] closer to people and helped [him] make friends".

He even attributed sports for his smooth transition to the United States by allowing him to acclimate to a new culture.

But, a nearly fatal car accident in his second year was what ultimately brought Nur to running.

A driver in another car struck the car that Nur was riding in as a passenger in the backseat.

Nur ended up tearing ligaments in his knee and required surgery to fix his injured collarbone.

He was bedridden temporarily, missed the entire soccer season as a result, and was unable to go to school for three months.

He recalls the experience messing him up and being a "really bad time for [him]".

Eager to return to soccer in his junior year, he went through rehab just so that he could quickly get back to the field in good shape.

During his rehabilitation, he needed to improve his endurance and conditioning.

His coach advised him to give cross country a try.

Immediately, Nur showed great potential by coming in third place at his first meet in Flagstaff, Arizona.

His coach saw this and recommended that Nur forget soccer and seriously consider switching to running.

Nur thought the idea sounded crazy because "soccer was something [he] grew up loving" and an integral part of his identity.

His whole family played soccer, including all of his brothers, which is why he struggled to envision quitting the sport.

Soon though, Nur actually took a liking to running and it became something that he did out of genuine interest.

Later, he won the Arizona Interscholastic Association (AIA) Cross Country Division I State Championships in his senior year of high school which opened up many opportunities with colleges for him.

He began to receive a lot of calls following his big win and it also put him on Northern Arizona University's (NAU) radar.

Despite failing to qualify academically for the university's cross country team right away, he had to implement changes to his studies to compete for the university at the collegiate level.

Nur enrolled at Coconino County Community College in Flagstaff in 2017.

He fully devoted himself to his grades and training exclusively so that he could increase his chances of being accepted into NAU.

He competed in college for Northern Arizona University from 2019 to 2022, where he won multiple national titles in the NCAA and set a collegiate record in the indoor 5000 metres.

After graduating, Nur signed a professional sponsorship deal with Nike.

He has won two national titles, with victories at the 2022 USA Road 5k Championships and at the 5000 metres of the 2023 USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships.

Nur represented the United States at the 2022 World Athletics Championships in Eugene and at the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest.