From despair to baby joy: How Olympian and runner Peter Bol got his spark back

Following a tough few years, Sudanese-Australian Olympian and runner Peter Bol explains how his daughter’s birth has inspired him and intensified his love for his sport.

When Peter Bol fronts up to the start line of his middle-distance race, be it at an Olympic Games or a World Athletics Championship, he’s as mentally relaxed as nerves will allow.

Watch him on the TV screen and his warm smile and wave at the roving camera – a stark contrast to the camera-performing competitors who surround him – will have you convinced. Now, as he faces arguably the biggest event of his life in the form of new parenthood, he’s effortlessly calm, and says he’s adding flexibility to his mindset toolkit.

Bol and his fiancee, Ethiopian-born Mahtut Yaynu, welcomed their daughter Reyna at The Royal Women’s Hospital in Melbourne in early October, and today are still revelling in the intoxicating newborn bubble. So much so, they haven’t even decided on a middle name yet. “My mum actually came up with her name,” Yaynu, 31, tells Stellar with a smile.

“The moment I told her I was pregnant, she already had a name for a boy and a girl.”

Bol handles his newborn daughter with an ease rarely seen by first-time fathers, and says that parenting has brought a much-needed spark to his life.

Picture: Sam Bisso for Stellar

Peter Bol and Mahtut Yaynu, with their daughter, Reyna. Picture: Sam Bisso for Stellar

As the 30-year-old admits, “Especially after losing so much joy from my sport recently, I’ve got some of that back, which is nice.”

Indeed, the Melbourne-based athlete has experienced a tumultuous few years.

After winning the hearts of Australians at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 – where he smashed through the heats, broke two national records and finished fourth in the 800m final (in which he was the first Australian male to compete in 53 years) – Bol arrived home to new-found fame.

The nation became obsessed with his story: from Sudanese refugee to Australian Olympian, all while beating the odds and, most importantly, being a nice guy.

So when news dropped in January 2023 of Bol testing positive to an elevated level of the performance-enhancing drug erythropoietin (EPO), you could hear the collective gasp from Bondi to Broome. It just didn’t make sense.

Bol vehemently denied and fought the allegations – and six months later was, in his words, “exonerated” when the World Anti-Doping Agency accepted ​​the findings by the Australian Government’s anti-doping organisation Sports Integrity Australia of a false-positive test.

However, the experience up-ended his athletic momentum.

Peter Bol and his daughter, Reyna, on set for Stellar. Picture: Sam Bisso for Stellar

He eventually got back on track, but a hamstring injury delayed the start of his 2024 Australian athletics season, and he was knocked out in his 800m qualifying round at the Paris Olympics.

Thankfully, the career lows of the past few years have only strengthened the bond between Bol and Yaynu, who have been together since 2022 and made it official when they announced their engagement last March.

Their blossoming relationship dates back more than a decade.

Bol, who was born in Sudan, moved to Egypt at the age of six and then Toowoomba in Queensland at 10, before his family settled in Perth. Yaynu was born in Ethiopia, raised by her grandparents until the age of nine, and then came to Australia with her younger sister to be with their mother, who had arrived here in 2001.

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Peter Bol, front centre, competes during the Men's 800m at the Paris Olympics. Picture: Getty Images

At the 2024 Australian Athletics Championships in Adelaide. Picture: Getty Images

In 2012, Bol and Yaynu ended up in the same neighbourhood in Perth – at different schools but in the same social circles – and when they both later settled in Melbourne, they remained friends.

“Pete travels a lot and whenever he was here, we would always catch up. And then, over time, that led to romance,” recalls Yaynu, who holds bachelor degrees in psychology and criminology, and a masters in business administration.

“I’ve spent a lot of time in academia,” she tells Stellar, adding that, when not on maternity leave, she works as a data collection methodologist for the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Partners of elite athletes often carry much of the emotional load, but Yaynu – who admits she doesn’t like running – reveals that Bol is self-sufficient.

“Pete is very self-aware and knows what kind of support he needs and will ask for it. The best thing I could do is to keep it light.”

The self-confessed homebodies’ new family unit is now central to Bol’s focus. “Athletics is such a beautiful part of my life, but eventually it will end, whether it’s under my control or not,” he says.

“But the people around me will always be there – my support system.”

For more from Stellar, listen to the new episode of the podcast, Something To Talk About:

Following what she calls “a beautiful pregnancy”, Yaynu had to wait two weeks past her due date to welcome Reyna.

She was induced, then had a 12-hour labour (“It was tough”) with Bol and her mother by her side. Now, just over a month since they became parents, the couple are adjusting to the newborn juggle. “Pete has done 90 per cent of the nappy changes,” Yaynu says, adding that while she feeds the baby, he cooks. His specialty? Ethiopian-style eggs.

See the full shoot with Peter Bol and his family inside the latest issue of Stellar. Picture: Stellar

During Yaynu’s pregnancy, Bol says they found their feelings towards parenthood circling back to their own upbringings and what their daughter’s will look like in comparison.

“There were a lot of pressures as migrants; we’re [both] from a war-torn country and you have to excel and stand out because your parents worked so hard to get you here,” says Bol, who describes himself as quietly confident.

“I want to be a father who shows love and support; she can choose what she wants to do – she doesn’t need the same tools we needed. I need to be aware of that.”

So with the arrival of his daughter, is a career finish line looming for Bol? Absolutely not, says Bol. In fact, Reyna’s birth has only intensified his hunger for running.

“I’m still training and competing,” he explains, adding that he enjoyed the Paris Olympics more than Tokyo, “minus the performance”, thanks to the packed stadiums and his family cheering him on.

“We have got World Champs next September, which ends up being close to her birthday. So if she can be [there] in Tokyo, that would be pretty nice … although I have to be flexible.”

See the full shoot with Peter Bol and his family in the latest issue of Stellar, out on Sunday via The Sunday Telegraph (NSW), Sunday Herald Sun (VIC), The Sunday Mail (QLD) and Sunday Mail (SA).

For more from Stellar and the podcast, Something To Talk About, click here.

Originally published as From despair to baby joy: How Olympian and runner Peter Bol got his spark back