Peter Bol holds the weight of Australia’s track ambitions on his shoulders, after becoming the first Australian to qualify for the men’s 800 metre final since 1968.

The 27-year-old Olympic athlete is from a Sudanese family who escaped civil war to Egypt, before emigrating to Australia when he was only 10 years old.

It was Helen Leahy, his teacher at St Norbert College in Perth, who first recognised Bol’s talent for running.

She told Deborah Knight she’s very proud of how far he’s come.

“I had a conversation with Peter about whether he wanted to do athletics, and when I did he didn’t actually know it was a sport!

“I said, ‘can you run the 800 [metres] Peter?’ and he said ‘how many laps is that, miss?'”

Press PLAY below to hear more of Peter Bol’s origin story

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