Americans Competing for other Countries

[thejumper5]

Reports have been coming out that Al-Farouq Aminu, who was born in Georgia, attende college at Wake Forest, and plays for the NO Hornets, will compete internationally for Nigeria starting this summer. This follows Chris Kaman competing for Germany in the 2008 Olympics. There have been lots of other instances of Americans competing for other nations in many sports over the years.

I'm not sure how I feel about this. I understand that they want to compete and play at the very highest level possible, but I can't imagine ever donning the uniform of another nation. What do you think?

 

[hawkfan340]

Do they have dual citizenship? If not, why is this allowed?

 

[pumpdog20]

If they have a strong sense of pride for their other country, why not. I personally wouldn't do it, but I don't care as long as they're not good enough to make the US team first.

 

[thejumper5]

Do they have dual citizenship? If not, why is this allowed?

In Aminu's case, his father is an immigrant from Nigeria, so he might have dual citizenship, though I'm not certain. In many cases, it's up to the OC of each country to decide who is eligible to compete. Different countries and sports have different rules. A lot of times, if a parent or grandparent was a native of a country, you might be allowed to compete for them.

Americans compete under different flags in bobsled

 

[BryceC]

People talked about this with Kaman and the chick who played for Russia during the last Olympics. I might think it was a big deal if the Olympics were actually about celebrating different countries and amateur athletics as opposed to a giant cash grab. The Olympics makes the NCAA look magnanimous and totally concerned amateur athletics.

 

[iahawks912]

If they want to lose let them.

 

[uihawk82]

People talked about this with Kaman and the chick who played for Russia during the last Olympics. I might think it was a big deal if the Olympics were actually about celebrating different countries and amateur athletics as opposed to a giant cash grab. The Olympics makes the NCAA look magnanimous and totally concerned amateur athletics.

I would compete for Italy or Norway at the London Olympics in the sport of drinking english and scottish ale!

 

[SPGroth]

In 2004, there were two sisters that played softball for The University of Iowa that ended making the Greek olympic softball team. Not sure that they had dual citizenship, but they had root in Greece and made their team.

 

[theantiAIRBHG]

IIRC, didn't this happen a lot with the World Baseball Classic too? Guys like ARod, whom played for the Dominican Republic?

 

[CAARHawk]

If it could get me in the locker room for women's tennis or high jump I would freaking compete for North Korea, Iran, or Syria.