{"id":366818,"date":"2024-02-10T19:47:59","date_gmt":"2024-02-10T20:47:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=366818"},"modified":"2024-02-10T23:03:19","modified_gmt":"2024-02-10T23:03:19","slug":"love-story-behind-cult-heros-olympic-redemption","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=366818","title":{"rendered":"&#039;Love story&#039; behind cult hero&#039;s Olympic redemption"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/news\/peter-bol\" target=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"Peter Bol\">Peter Bol<\/a> has described his road to <a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/olympics\/paris-olympics-2024\" target=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"Paris\">Paris<\/a> 2024 and his connection with Australian fans as a &quot;love story&quot;, with the cult hero preparing to claim an Olympic medal in 2024.<\/p>\n<p>After a whirlwind few years, which saw him burst onto the scene in Tokyo and earn the adulation of fans back home, Bol is now on the path to redemption after a \ufeffhorror 12 months that saw him wrongly accused of failing a drug test.<\/p>\n<p>The 29-year-old has been cleared by the governing body, but has faced even further adversity in more recent times due to injury, <a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/athletics\/news-2024-peter-bol-injury-olympic-games-paris\/925d7aed-01c5-4a5a-b413-716e0f7a2a7b\" target=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"ruling him out of events in Australia\">ruling him out of events in Australia<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/nrl\/news-2024-cody-walker-injury-south-sydney-rabbitohs-indigenous-all-stars-las-vegas\/13473614-737a-4fe8-a392-0a740ad1813e\" target=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"Rabbitohs star in doubt for Las Vegas season opener\"><strong>Rabbitohs star in doubt for Las Vegas season opener<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>IN PICTURES:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/news\/every-australian-player-in-nfl-history-in-pictures\/9b18c013-d195-49fe-ab55-cdef5cc4a51e\" target=\"\" title=\"The curious fact about Australia&#x27;s only Super Bowl winner\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>The curious fact about Australia&#x27;s only Super Bowl winner<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/\" target=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"How beach accident horror led Aussie to obsession\"><strong>How beach accident horror led Aussie to obsession<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>But with Paris 2024 fast-approaching, the humble middle-distance runner \ufefftold 9News Sydney why he is well-placed to earn a medal and light up the city of love, as well as giving back to the Aussie contingent that have backed him all the way.<\/p>\n<p><img data-id=\"0a4f146e-5e7d-4f84-bc5c-6a290ca1b2d2\" src=\"https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/0a4f146e-5e7d-4f84-bc5c-6a290ca1b2d2\" alt=\"\" data-width=\"1396\" data-height=\"785\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&quot;Mentally I&#x27;m probably the strongest at the moment and the physical part, we kind of work up to it,&quot; Bol said.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;I could say it was quite challenging, but it was also quite comforting to see Australia behind you. What I could control at that time was my emotions.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;I always say the best races you ever run are when you&#x27;re free.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;It makes the story even better leading up to Paris. Everyone was behind you in the last Olympics, and now you&#x27;ve got extra people around you as well.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;People matter, the sport matters, medals come and go. I believed in them and they believed in me \u2013 it&#x27;s almost like a love story, it&#x27;s cool.&quot;<\/p>\n<p><img data-id=\"515bd5b6-c0ed-46f2-b23b-01f752d55a1c\" src=\"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/515bd5b6-c0ed-46f2-b23b-01f752d55a1c\" alt=\"\" data-width=\"1396\" data-height=\"785\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Bol, who was born in Sudan but moved to Queensland and then to Perth, was a standout sportsman in both athletics and basketball.<\/p>\n<p>His humble roots and beaming smile made him a fan-favourite and a relatable figure for a lot of fans, while his family ties continue to push him towards greatness.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;I&#x27;ve got such a big family, some of them will get out to Paris and the rest will stay at home and do the same thing, watch from home and cheer me on,&quot; Bol said.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;It will be another big party and no COVID this time, so it&#x27;s even gonna be bigger.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Bol finished fourth in the 800m final in Tokyo less than three years ago, before going on to claim a silver medal at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>Peter Bol has described his road to Paris 2024 and his connection with Australian fans as a &quot;love story&quot;, with the cult hero preparing to <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=366818\" title=\"&#039;Love story&#039; behind cult hero&#039;s Olympic redemption\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":325427,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366818"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=366818"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366818\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":366821,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366818\/revisions\/366821"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/325427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=366818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=366818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=366818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}