Jama Mohamed Aden (born August 28, 1962) is a Somali former

middle-distance runner Middle-distance running events are track races longer than sprints, ranging from 500 metres up to . The standard middle distances are the 800 metres, 1500 metres and mile run, although the 3000 metres may also be classified as a middle-distanc ...

and coach who ran for

Fairleigh Dickinson University Fairleigh Dickinson University () is a private university with its main campuses in New Jersey, located in Madison / Florham Park and in Teaneck / Hackensack. Founded in 1942, Fairleigh Dickinson University offers more than 100 degree prog ...

as well as representing Somalia throughout the 1980s. He would go on to pursue a career in coaching world-class middle-distance athletes. He is the older brother of former competitive runner

Ibrahim Mohamed Aden Ibrahim Mohamed Aden Gedi (born November 11, 1972) is a Somali-American former middle-distance runner who represented Somalia in international competition until he gained US citizenship in 2000, after which he competed for the United States. He i ...

. He was born in Ainabo in eastern

Somaliland Somaliland, officially the Republic of Somaliland, is an List of states with limited recognition, unrecognised country in the Horn of Africa. It is located in the southern coast of the Gulf of Aden and bordered by Djibouti to the northwest, E ...

Running career

Collegiate

Aden was recruited with an athletic scholarship by

, for which he set multiple records, many of which still stand today. He was especially known for having run a 3:56.82 mile as a junior undergrad. He was coached by

Mal Whitfield Malvin Greston Whitfield (October 11, 1924 – November 19, 2015) was an American athlete, goodwill ambassador, and airman. Nicknamed "Marvelous Mal", he was the Olympic Games, Olympic champion in the 800 metres, 800 meters at the 1948 Summer O ...

, two times Olympic champion.

International

Aden ran for

Somalia Somalia, officially the Federal Republic of Somalia, is the easternmost country in continental Africa. The country is located in the Horn of Africa and is bordered by Ethiopia to the west, Djibouti to the northwest, Kenya to the southwest, th ...

at the

1983 World Championships in Athletics The 1st World Championships in Athletics (; ) were run under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations and were held at the Olympic Stadium (Helsinki), Olympic Stadium in Helsinki, Finland between 7 and 14 August 1983 ...

and at the

1984 Summer Olympics The 1984 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXIII Olympiad and commonly known as Los Angeles 1984) were an international multi-sport event held from July 28 to August 12, 1984, in Los Angeles, California, United States. It marked the ...

. At the 1983 World Championships, he competed in both the men's 800 metres and men's 1500 metres, but did not advance to the finals in either distance. At the 1984 Summer Olympics, he finished in fifth place of the second heat in the men's 1500 metres, Pascal Thiebaut (FRA) won the heat and

Sebastian Coe Sebastian Newbold Coe, Baron Coe, (born 29 September 1956), often referred to as Seb Coe, is a British sports administrator, former politician and retired track and field athlete. As a middle-distance runner, Coe won four Olympic medals, incl ...

(GBR) was second. Aden did not advance to the finals. He competed in the men's 1500 metres at the

1988 Summer Olympics The 1988 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIV Olympiad () and officially branded as Seoul 1988 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 17 September to 2 October 1988 in Seoul, South Korea. 159 nations were represe ...

Coaching

Aden earned a master's degree in exercise physiology at

George Mason University George Mason University (GMU) is a Public university, public research university in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. Located in Northern Virginia near Washington, D.C., the university is named in honor of George Mason, a Founding Father ...

, after which he pursued a coaching career. He was assisting John Cook in coaching countryman and GMU runner

Abdi Bile Abdi Bile (, ; born 28 December 1962) is a former middle distance runner. He holds the highest number of national records in athletics in Somalia across various disciplines. He is currently Somalia's national record holder in nine athletic disc ...

before he won the gold medal at the

1987 World Championships in Athletics The 2nd World Championships in Athletics under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations were held in the Stadio Olimpico in Rome, Italy between August 28 and September 6, 1987. Men's results Track 1983 , 1987 , ...

. Among the successful runners Aden has coached himself are two-times 800 metres world indoor champion Abukaker Kaki Khamis, 2008 Beijing Olympics 800 metres silver-medalist Ismael Ahmed Ismael, 2012 London Olympics 1500 metres champion

Taoufik Makhloufi Taoufik Makhloufi (; born 29 April 1988) is an Algerian athlete who specialises in middle-distance running. He became the 1500 metres Olympic champion at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, England. In 2016, Makhloufi took the silver medal in th ...

, 2012 world junior 1500 metres champion

Hamza Driouch Hamza Driouch ( ''Ḥamza ad-Driyūsh''; born 16 November 1994) is a Qatari track and field athlete. He was born in Guelmim, Morocco. In February 2015 it was announced that Driouch had been banned from athletics for two years for abnormalities in ...

, 2013 world indoor champion and indoor world record holder at 1000 metres

Ayanleh Souleiman Ayanleh Souleiman (born 3 December 1992), also known as ''Hassan Ayanleh'' (), is a Djiboutian middle-distance runner who specialises in the 1500 metres. He is the Djiboutian record holder for the distance, with his best of 3:29.58 minutes, a ...

, and several times world champion and world record holder at 1500 metres indoor and outdoor as well as Mile, 3000 and 5000 metres indoor –

Genzebe Dibaba Genzebe Dibaba Keneni ( Oromo: ''Ganzabee Dibaabaa Qananii''; Amharic: ገንዘቤ ዲባባ ቀነኒ; born 8 February 1991) is an Ethiopian middle- and long-distance runner. A 1,500 metres 2016 Rio Olympics silver medalist, she won a gold ...

. In 2011 Aden was selected as the most worthy of 132 candidates from 16 Arab countries who contended for the Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Award for Sports Excellence. After both had run world indoor records in Stockholm Globengalan (former XL Galan) February 17, 2016 Dibaba (mile) and Souleiman (1000 m) expressed their gratitude to their coach. Souleiman said: "I want to thank my coach, Jama Aden, for working so hard with me." In the same meeting another of Jama Aden's athletes, 18-year-old Abdalelah Haroun produced a 500 metres world best time and became first man ever running below 60 seconds indoor. In an interview from November 2012 in Swedish daily news paper

Dagens Nyheter (, ), abbreviated ''DN'', is a daily newspaper in Sweden. It is published in Stockholm and aspires to full national and international coverage, and is widely considered Sweden's newspaper of record A newspaper of record is a major nationa ...

, Aden describes his coaching philosophy and compares with differences between Europe and Africa. He says it takes time to become a top athlete and runner. ''"Have the Europeans become lazy?"'' he was asked, he replies: ''"No not at all. It's not about laziness. But it takes time for results to come in elite running, therefore you don't prioritise it"''. He also reveals his satisfaction when Makhloufi crossed the line as winner of the Blue Ribbon event of the Olympics, the 1500 metres, in London 2012. ''"I was speechless. I felt that all hard work paid back at that moment"''. He then goes on and explains the importance of full-time coaching if you want to have long term success.

''"If you look at the coaches in running today who have had success, like
Alberto Salazar Alberto Salazar (born August 7, 1958) is an American former track coach and long-distance runner. Born in Cuba, Salazar immigrated to the United States as a child with his family, living in Connecticut and then in Wayland, Massachusetts, where ...
with
Mo Farah Sir Mohamed Muktar Jama Farah (born Hussein Abdi Kahin; 23 March 1983) is a Somali-British former long-distance runner. Considered one of the greatest runners of all time, his ten global championship gold medals (four Olympic and six World tit ...
and
Galen Rupp Galen Rupp (born May 8, 1986) is an American long-distance runner. He competed in the Summer Olympics in 2008 in Beijing, 2012 in London, 2016 in Rio de Janeiro and 2021 in Tokyo. He won the silver medal in the men's 10,000 meters in London and ...
, myself,
Peter Coe Percy Newbold "Peter" Coe (27 September 1919 – 9 August 2008) was a British athletics coach, author, translator and coach of his son Sebastian Coe. Early life and education Coe was born Percy Newbold Coe in Stepney, the only child of carpent ...
and Harry Wilson, who coached
Steve Ovett Stephen Michael James Ovett, (; born 9 October 1955) is a retired British track athlete. A middle-distance runner, he was the gold medalist in the 800 metres at the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow. Ovett set five world records for 1500 metre ...
, we are, or have been, full time coaches. I live next to my athletes and they are like my family. In Sweden, you coach part time. Then it becomes more difficult for the runner to achieve great success".''

In New York Times, during Olympic Games and few days after Ben Johnson was caught for doping in the famous 100 metres final. Jama Aden commented and also explained to Frank Litsky the psychology behind the use of doping in sport. "Jama Aden of Somalia, who ran for Fairleigh Dickinson University, will run in the Olympic 1,500-meter heats Thursday. He said athletes who used drugs feared losing more than they feared detection. 'This will scare them,' he said. 'They're scared now. But they know if they get away with taking drugs they will run good times. They want to win and they are willing to take chances to win.'"

Controversies

In 2015 two of Jama Aden's athletes were suspended for doping violation, Laila Traby from France and

from Qatar. Driouch was banned for inconsistencies in his biological passport, dated to 2 Aug 2012 during the London Olympics when Aden was his coach. His actual suspension time was set to 31 Dec 2014 to 30 Dec 2016. Hamza Driouch left Aden in September 2012 after the Olympics, and by April 30, 2013; Driouch was coached by Abdelkader Kada,

Hicham El Guerrouj Hicham El Guerrouj (; ; born 14 September 1974) is a retired Moroccan middle-distance runner. El Guerrouj is the current world record holder for the 1500 metres and mile, and the former world record holder in the 2000 metres. He is the only m ...

‘s former coach. Jama was forced by Qatari federation to continue assisting and coaching Hamza in Team Jama Aden and Hamza was running with the team again in February 2015 in Ethiopia. A plausible explanation for the delayed announcement of Driouch's doping ban is found in th
WADA Independent commission report #2
(page 68). It is further explained under entry

. The ban was announced in February 2015 and was immediately followed by harsh Twitter-statement (to +15k followers) by New Zealand middle distance runner

Nick Willis Nicholas Ian Willis (born 25 April 1983) is a New Zealand middle-distance runner and the country's only two-time Olympic medalist in the 1500 metres. He won the silver medal at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, and bronze at the 2016 Olympics in R ...

who put Hamza's coach Aden under spotlight. January 30, 2016, the French athletic site SPE15.fr established by Gilles Bertrand and Odile Baudrier with the motto – "No Drug, just fighting spirit" – released an interview (in French) with Hamza, where he accuses Jama. "I believed in my coach, and that was the wrong decision. The doping problem comes from the coach Jama Aden". A full translation of the French interview can be found at Letsrun.com. Surprisingly on February 15, 2016, less than three weeks later, Hamza took his accusations back via the same French athletic site, "Jama gave me vitamins for recovery, and I'm not a victim due to Jama Aden". Aden's second athlete caught for doping in 2015, Laila Traby, was suspended for EPO-use after French police found EPO in her apartment (Font-Romeu) in Nov 2014 and later she tested positive. Aden was not as clearly linked to her as to Hamza but Aden posted a congratulation during European Athletic Championship 2014 in Zürich when she got bronze at 10000 metres. On his Facebook fan page Coach JAMA ADEN (KARAIIN)´s Page, the "follower" Matt Yates (winner at 1500 metres of 1992 European Athletics Indoor Championship ) comments "''One of Yours?'' ", 14 Aug 2014 at 2.37 am (local time), and the editor (Coach Jama Aden) replies, "''Yes Matt Yates''" 14 Aug at 5.12 am (local time). When interviewed by French sport paper L'Equipe after

set the world record i Monaco Diamond League 2015, Aden told the journalist his personal best at 1500 meter was 3.36. "''un athlète moyen, dit-il. 1'46’’ sur 800 m et 3’36’’ au 1 500 m''". According to statistics from IAAF, Aden's personal best at 1500 metres is 3.38. It is common in athletics with so called "behind the scene" doping-accusation following a world record. However, such an outspoken critical voice as Volker Wagner's (coach to among other Tegla Leroupe) is not common. In one of the biggest Swedish daily news paper – prior to 2015

World Championship A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game ...

in Beijing – he commented Genezbe's world record at 1500 metres with: "''This is something I don't believe in!'' ". Indirectly accusing her and her team and coach of doping. The Ethiopian sport journalist Bizuayehu Wagaw with running as specialization commented in turn what Wagner said with: "''He should be silent ..it is a shame people say like that without the person is proven guilty''". In June 2016, Aden was arrested in Spain after police raided his hotel room and found performance-enhancing substances.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aden, Jama 1962 births Living people Somalian male middle-distance runners Somalian sports coaches Athletics (track and field) coaches Olympic athletes for Somalia Athletes (track and field) at the 1984 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1988 Summer Olympics World Athletics Championships athletes for Somalia George Mason University alumni Somalian expatriates in the United States Fairleigh Dickinson Knights men's track and field athletes