Charles Hicks Wants to Run for Team USA

Albertson, Panning, and Richtman are nowhere near Hicks’s talent. Not even in the same ballpark. Young’s days at the top are numbered—and his ceiling is much lower than Hicks’.

Hicks and Blanks will be great marathoners.

They are Americans from Florida.

Yet we actually have no idea how well Hicks will translate to the marathon.

Albertson, Panning, Richtman have nowhere near Paul Chelimo's raw running talent. Look how that panned out.

Also, US is not like GB marathoning. It's one race to make the team. Any given day. Injuries, Sickness, just a bad day. You need to have as little guys close to your level as possible. Whereas in GB, you run the time elsewhere, and prove yourself, you will get picked.

Albertson is a prime example of this. Was far and away the 3rd best US marathoner this year. Couldn't get it done on the big stage. By making this move, Hicks is basically counting on 2 races in the next 8 years to become an Olympian. Whereas for GB, he could have as many as six chances each cycle. The odds just aren't in his favor

Maybe Hicks just believes in himself and would prefer to rep the US.

Dude, where are you getting this nonsense and why are you posting it? Kinda sounds like ChatGPT misinformation. Both of his parents are American, born and raised. As are his grandparents. He was born in London to his American parents when his father had a job in finance there. That's why he has passports from both countries.

hicks' dad/nom could have become naturalized after moving to the UK before he was born. could also have become indefinite leave to remain before the kid was born. their kid is then a citizen as of when he was born in 2001.

parents and kid could also have become ILR within the 12 years he was there, after legally residing there 5 years, and then after a year on ILR he could apply to be naturalized. would've taken 6 years and he was there 12.

conservatives in this country have been horribly miseducated by tv about "birthright." plenty of countries make the children of naturalized or permanent residents citizens themselves. the US quirk is very specific -- we allow the children of noncitizens (except immune diplomats) to also have birthright. this is because of slavery. we chose to avoid the german "gastarbeiter" outcome where you could possible have kids in country generations as workers' kids but not easily able to become citizens themselves -- which is exploitative and creates an underclass.

anyhow, i am pretty sure some industrialist setting up a business abroad dotted his immigration i's and crossed his t's to be legally in the country, and having some mix of tax savvy and affection for england to set up shop there, got himself citizenship or their "green card," then did the same for his wife and kids.

As far as earning potential, I think this is a bad move. He can much more easily make GB teams (and reach salary/bonus milestones for making the team, winning championships). And because it's Great Britain and they have a stronger athletics fan base -- he can get more sponsorship deals there than he would here.

If you have a chance to represent a European country...do it. Outside of Europe, the middle eastern countries will hook you up if you represent them well. Look at Tadej Pojacar getting some huge dollars from UAE.

I don't understand why American runners are so tied to patriotic loyalty to the US and continue to go down the shoe sponsor route. You need to be going down the nation-sponsoring route.

Florida Americans are different than American Americans.

A Florida Man for instance is an entirely separate identity unto themselves.

Perhaps, initially, he decided UK was an easier way to make teams.

Perhaps he has realized USA to have better sponsorship deals and an avenue in the marathon.

Nothing wrong with either decision. Time and knowledge makes for better decisions.

Face it UK Athletics is broke and US sponsors pay US athletes better than most every foreign athlete. Nothing wrong with that. If UK sponsors don’t support their athletes well and in this case their is duel citizenship, switch-a-roo.

If he is going to start focusing on road racing as many speculate, this is a great move for earning potential! He trains in the US. The US has more big road races that are easier to travel to for a US-based athlete. Many races offer "first American" bonuses. Three US-based major marathons and many shorter road races that undoubtedly pay larger appearance fees to Americans are available. The US road racing championship series is only open to Americans.

Given how difficult it is to hit the standard for the Olympic 10K and that his next opportunity is almost 4 years from now, he likely made a decision that is very much in his imediate financial interest and he will roll the dice on a tougher path to becoming an Olympian in 2028. Then, if he does make the 2028 games, he will get a huge earning premium for competing as an American in LA!

I think there's a piece to earning potential that people are missing. If he wants to become a marathoner, Charles Hicks the American is going to get more appearance money than Charles Hicks the Brit from Boston, Chicago, and New York.

As far as teams, at least the USA will send the max number of eligible athletes to global championships, GB doesn't always do that.

As I pointed out in another thread, Hicks decided to run for a UK Junior Euro Cross Country Team in 2019 when he was a Freshman at Stanford (and only a couple months after graduating from High School). He was not yet Charles MF Hicks (that would come in 2021 after Covid) so my sense is that his 2019 choice had more to do with thinking it would be cool to run in an international competition than thinking he was someday going to make the UK Olympic Team. My guess is that since he now is an Olympic contender and still fairly young, he wanted to switch his allegiance to his real home country and get the waiting period (for switching his WA allegiance) over as early in his career as possible.

There may be some financial reasons too, but I give Hicks the benefit of the doubt that he did it because he identifies as an American.

Has any other notable runner switched allegiance to a country where it is arguably harder to make a national team?

There's probably a few who do it for better funding and support. Zharnel Hughes springs to mind.

Maybe this is just about how Hicks feels. National identity is a funny thing, it's something you feel and it doesn't always come down to where you are born. Could be that he feels out of place representing GB so he'd rather take his chances with the US even though it means he probably won't go to an Olympics. You have to be true to yourself, even if it is costly (though I don't think he needs to worry about money anyway, his parents are likely very wealthy)

This is a big piece. Earning potential as an American Olympian is definitely higher. Plus he lives and trains in the US already, clearly has more ties to the US.

2028 US marathon team will be a battle between Conner Mantz, Nico Young, Graham Blanks, Charles Hicks, Alex Maier, and no one else.

He probably took offense at receiving an invoice for the breath mint he took in the UK Track lobby.

I think Blanks has a future on the track before the marathon. I don't see him as a guy like Mantz who moves up immediately. He's indicated he wants to attack the track at least through LA 2028. I mean the guy ran 7:29 off very little specific work and what sounded like a pretty mediocre block of winter training.

Blanks may have a future on the track. But making teams will be tough. In the 5k, he’s going to have to contend with Fisher, Hocker, Strand, Nur, and Wolfe, not to mention Teare, Jacobs, and Gilman. In the 10k, you have Fisher, Young, and others. Can Blanks kick with those guys? I think the jury is still out. Personally, I’d like to see him move to the marathon (along with Hicks) sooner rather than later. Team USA needs talents like him in the marathon if we’re ever going to compete with Kenya and Ethiopia in that event (as we’ve done in the 1500-10,000).

I mean...

In the 5k he got fourth last year after being injured all winter and he still made the team. He beat Teare, Jacobs, Hocker, Gilman, etc. and I think would've given Wolfe a better run for his money had the race been a few weeks later. The amount he improved between NCAAs and the Olympics was almost staggering. He went from 5th in the NCAA to 9th in the world, beating studs like Krop (2x World medalist), Nordas (1x World medalist), Oscar Chelimo (1x World medalist), and many guys with European Championships medals. He's also mentioned that he's an altitude responder and I think spending six months a year in Flagstaff will improve him even more.

In the 10k you said "Fisher, Young, and others," because the "others" is the crux of the issue here: there aren't really any others. We don't have more than 3-4 guys who can run the standard. It won't be that difficult for Blanks to make the 10k team.

You are right that we should be sending talents like him to the roads if we want to bolster our marathon team—he would be a great marathoner, probably among the best American marathoners ever. But his ceiling is so high that I think he could also be among the best American track distance guys ever too.