Where is Edward Cheserek???

I’m just doing what my coach told me and supporting my teammates and running with my teammates and working hard, yeah.

7th at the Olympics like 17 months ago. Some people have down years

He's in his late 30s. Decided to give it up.

You Mean Late 20's

Yes, he should of

he got a bum shoe deal at the wrong time with Sketchers.....probably cost him $$$ in earnings/advertisements

From what I recall, he said he trusted the wrong people with his citizenship application. Probably paid someone to manage the process for him and got ripped off. Given his reluctance to speak about it publicly, I wonder if it was a close associate. Or friend? Unfortunately, this happens quite often.

Imagine if he finishes 3rd (behind the Uganda studs) with a sub 61, that'll put this thread to rest.

I think it was the opposite, Sketchers offered a great deal that he would be dumb to turn down.

On the LetsRun.com pod Rojo said Cheserek got paid a TON of money by Skechers.

Posts # 4, 7, 20, and 21 all insist he has some mysterious lack of citizenship. Is he living one of these 'man without a country' situations where he has to stay on ships and cannot step onto land on any country? Let's just say that is the case....you know, just for the sake of comedy. OK, in this hypothetical he has no citizenship. How is that slowing him down?

Would it be easier to get the sub-13 or sub-27 that many would have predicted if some country granted him citizenship? Would he be immune to injuries? Would he be able to get into the marathon game and get in the 2:07 range? Conceivably even better? How would the 'citizenship' that so many believe he lacks help with any of that? Assuming he has none (ridiculous, of course, but I'm humoring all of you by pretending that's the case), how would it benefit his career to get some?

Blame our messed up immigration system, but it's tough to get citizenship if you don't get a green card--usually by being on your parents getting a green card while you are still minor. If that doesn't happen, you could easily live in the US for a long time in by being added to your parents' work visa, being on a student visa, and being on various other work visas. Once you finally get green card sponsorship (which is an expensive and bureaucratic process that involves having a good lawyer for a petition for something like an EB1 visa for exceptional athletes), you have to wait five years before you can apply for citizenship (three years if you are married to a US citizen). So it seems not particularly unexplainable that he hasn't become a citizen yet.

One of my friends came here at age 10, when to middle, high school, PhD, and postdoc in the US, and didn't get his green card until his mid-30s. Another friend went to school here from age 6 through college, and couldn't find a job in the US that would sponsor his visa, so he had to go back to the EU.

I think it's silly that we recruit people to study in our universities and give them scholarships and valuable training and then don't provided the opportunity to contribute to the economy even if they have built a life here. For college educated skilled immigrants, the process is much more dysfunctional and bureaucratic that many other developed countries.

The processing times all got more bogged down and during the Trump administration and then COVID restrictions on immigration.

So you are one who seriously, all joking aside, believes he is a citizen of nowhere? But more importantly, given this thread is about his running, that such lack is the reason he's not winning everything in sight? You could argue coaching is a problem. Haas coached his fiancee to a huge win a little while ago, though. So there's that. And he had some great percormances under his tutlege too. You could argue injuries. I don't think there is even a main one to focus on. Haven't there been a variety over the years? You could argue sponsor/shoes (although I wouldn't). Those who do so believe he should have been in the Swoosh all along. Nke has many loyalists working for them directly or unwittingly.

But do you know what the problem is most definitely NOT? CITIZENSHIP! This is not an impediment to his career. I for one, believe he is one. Of Kenya. A lot of races are won and records set with Kenyan citizenship. It is not slowing him down. Lack of citizenship IS NOT THE PROBLEM!

No. His true age, not the age(s) the PC woke fans ascribe to him.

So when he becomes a US citizen he will race more? Brilliant

Exactly. How does this suddenly cause him to be the suoerstar so many wanted him to be and many predicted? We can debate what is stopping him from racing and slowing him down when he does, but as pointed out above, it is most certainly not the US Immigration system. Feel free to suggest coach, shoes, weather, Republican or Democrat presidents, Covid, global climate change, lack of income, racism, or injuries. But it ain't the CIS. That's not stopping him.

How is the green card process expensive? I think I paid $600 or so to file my wife's paperwork. Even if he didn't have a sponsorship or other income, at $15/hr that is a single 40 hour work week, two if you account for after tax income. The process was totally straightforward. Maybe it's a bit more complicated for an 'exceptional ability' visa, but a from quick browse of USCIS website it doesn't look much more involved than what I did for my wife and mother in law. Of course it is more expensive if you pay a lawyer but the process is easily navigable without a lawyer.

I suspect that Ches either hired a really bad attorney or trusted someone who sucked at getting his paperwork through the system. He probably should have just gone to WCAP and joined the military. My former roommate (also a Kenyan, not as accomplished as Ches) got citizenship pretty quickly this way.

It's a mystery to me why Ches didn't get a contract with a company stipulating that they would handle his immigration process for him. Seems like a very simple process to get an exceptional ability visa for a guy who is the most decorated NCAA runner of all time.

Something a miss: he was a legend at Oregon. so no one from Nike could have put him on the path to citizenship? I mean after he was done at UO he should have been at Nike headquarters. Maybe he burned some bridges?

Why has this thread become about US citizenship? Ches threads pop up often and ususally the gist is: his mistake was ever running in a non-Nike shoe. I do not agree with this. I guarantee I am the most anti-Nike reader of this site. I wouldn't wear them. But that cannot be said for all of you. So, we usually see the opinion that lack of Nike contract, Nike support services, Nike coaching, and Nike shoes is what stopped him being in the Cheptgai/Kiplimo/Ingebritsen league.. i don't think so, but that's the way these threads - and there have been many - often go. If he had just gone to BTC, he'd be great!

But then this thread surfaces. Most of you seem to think that he is attempting to be a US citizen and failing to do so. That may or may not be true. What is really strange is that this alleged fact (he desperately wants US citizenship and is frantically trying ot get it but can't) is somehow stopping him from performing up to your expectations. No longer is Haas the problem. Shumacher would have him winning DL races. No longer is Skechers the problem. With the swoosh on his feet he'd be top-10 in various events at the end of every year. No longer is training without Fisher the problem. If he had real teammates, he'd wiuld have won The Ten!

No. None of those are slowing him down. The most recent version of this topic was about a month or so ago and all that was exactly the problem. Now, it's his theoretical immigration battle. But here's one major flaw: plenty of people have US citizenship. None of them have World Records in any event Ches is or could be good at. None of them won any of those events at the most recent WC and OG. US citizenship seemed to have been good for Kannouchi, but everyone since then hasn't been able to get to the top of the heap even with it. Even Lagat lost a step. He was faster with Kenyan citizenship.

Look at the top-10 in the recent WC XC. Or go top-20. How many Kenyan citizens do you see? How many US? US citizenship seems to be an impediment to success since the Shorter/Rodgers/Benoit eras. Sure, an outlier will show up. Jenny Simpson and Rupp have succeeded. But Kenyan medalists and major event winners are not outliers. Their success is assumed.

So it doesn't even seem certain that Ches is desperately trying to get US citizenship. Establish that first. But then please explain how it would help him. That he'd be faster with it seems to be a given on this thread. No one says how it would help him. It is not even clear he wants it, but:

Why would he be a better runner with a change in his CIS status?