Sally Kipyego and Sam Chelanga: will either be U.S citizens for Olympic Trials 2012?

aeriplane wrote:

There was a Flotrack interview with Chelanga early in the cross country season where he said he was hoping to have the citizenship process accelerated because of his running talents, but they don't do that, so he has to wait just like everybody else.

I did this interview. Thank you!

Link:

TA

You are either a racist or extremely stupid. Sam Chelanga and Sally Kipyego are definitely bigger medal threats then all other Americans except Chris Solinsky for the men and maybe Shalane Flanagan for the women.

SAM CHELANGA 10000m pb 27:08.39 (2010)

would make him the 2nd fastest American (if he had citizenship) in which he pulled away from the talented Galen Rupp late in the race to beat him by over 2 seconds.

SALLY KIPYEGO pb 5000m 14:38.64 (2010)

would be the American Record as she beat the current AR holder Molly Huddle by SIX (6) seconds when Molly ran the current AR of 14:44.76. Sally didn't run a 10000m in 2010 but rest assured she was definitely capable of 30:15 or faster last year which would be faster than the current AR.

So please stop with your nonesense.

Not that easy. It takes a minimum of 5 years (as an adult) after receiving a green card to be eligible for citizenship. After that it may take 6 or more months from filling out the paperwork, getting fingerprinted, passing the citizenship test, and taking the oath.

Question is when did he get his green card? If the answer is not 2007 or prior - he can forget about 2012 trials.

If he misses 2012 he'll be 31 for the 2016 games. Guy has some ballz wanting the gov't to expedite this process becuase he is a runner. He must think this is some European country desperate for medals, haha.

Yes the U.S could use all the help it can muster for medals in the men's and women's 10000m. If Elvan Abeyl (Tur) decides to go from the gun sub 30 minutes pace the only hope our women runners would have is if Sally Kipyego is a US citizen. Lisa Koll personal 5000m pb is only 14:55 so she would have to drop that pb dramatically to handle such a pace; however, Sally's 14:38 shows she could something close to 30 minutes flat already.

If the pace goes out sub 27:10 for the men we have more talent on the men's side as Chris Solinsky, Galen Rupp, and Sam Chelanga all could handle such a pace out of the gates.

So yeah the U.S is desperate for 10000m medal threats.

wow... wrote:

RAAACCIISTTSS!!

There, I got that out of the way. Now hopefully you can continue a real conversation without the idiots on here hijacking a thread with their ridiculous "everyone is racist" comments.

Actually, nobody was going there at all. Maybe you protest to much?

I went through and looked at the USATF and IAAF documents.

The IAAF rule is that if you represent one country and then change citizenship, you cannot represent your new country for a period of three years. (See page 21 in the link below, exception (c) of part 2 of rule 5)

http://www.iaaf.org/mm/Document/Competitions/TechnicalArea/05/47/81/20091027115916_httppostedfile_CompRules2010_web_26Oct09_17166.pdf

The period could be reduced to one year if both countries agree to let the athlete compete.

The USATF rule states that "only citizens of the United States who are eligible to represent the United States in all levels of international competition are eligible to compete." (page 16)

https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http://www.usatf.org/about/rules/2010/2010rules.pdf

This means that even if you are a US citizen, if you have represented another country in the past three years, you cannot even compete in the US championships.

There was a motion to change this rule to allow current US citizens who have represented another country in the past three years to compete at the US championships, even though they would be ineligible to represent the US in an international championship. (Item 6, page 2)

(link in next post)

That motion was tabled. I don't know where this two year rule people are referring to comes from. I couldn't find it in any those three documents. Can someone find a source for that?

I think the IAAF rule is good in spirit. It's meant to weaken the advantage of a wealthy country to buy athletes, although maybe three years is too long considering the average length of an athlete's career.

According to these rules, Kipyego and Chelanga would be able to compete at the US championships and the Olympics provided that they were granted citizenship before the international competition (neither have been on a Kenyan team, right?). However, it is possible that there is some other rule regarding eligibility that I'm not seeing.

https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http://www.usatf.org/groups/officials/files/resources/rules/2011-USATF-Final-Rules-Package.pdf

Wow, thanks for the info, get ugly. I'm also interested in where the two year rule came from. Anybody know what that's all about?

Call Jim Estes. 2 years is a fact. The clock does not stsrt until they are sworn in. Neither of these athletes will become citizens any earlier than 2013 (if they are lucky), More likely 2014 depending on where they currently are in the process. This means that they wouldn't be eligible for 2016.

With all due respect to Jim Estes, he is not the USATF dictator with the ability to decree rules into existence. USATF is supposed to operate according to explicit rules. I was merely asking if someone could provide a link to the document containing the two year rule. I am not saying that the rule does not exist. I just want to read it for myself in an official document.

I understand. THEN CALL JIM ESTES. He is a far better source to point you toward what you need to read than a no name message board.

Maybe the point is that you shouldn't have to call up somebody at the USATF office to find out the rules. These things can and should be posted on the internet in a place where it is easy for an interested person to find them.

Read get ugly's post. He referenced the 2010 rule book and the changes made to it at the 2010 annual meeting, neither of which say anything about a two year rule. If the rule exists, then shouldn't it be in one of those two places?

So I was right and you actually agree with me, you're just too dense to realize it. If they truly were medal threats, they'd have run for Kenya on the track already for World Champs or Olympics. Being a little faster than Huddle doesn't mean a damn thing with respect to all those she'd have to beat to get a medal. Same with Chelanga. And the word is nonsense, not "nonesense," you big dummy.

JustDaFacts wrote:

TA

You are either a racist or extremely stupid. Sam Chelanga and Sally Kipyego are definitely bigger medal threats then all other Americans except Chris Solinsky for the men and maybe Shalane Flanagan for the women.

SAM CHELANGA 10000m pb 27:08.39 (2010)

would make him the 2nd fastest American (if he had citizenship) in which he pulled away from the talented Galen Rupp late in the race to beat him by over 2 seconds.

SALLY KIPYEGO pb 5000m 14:38.64 (2010)

would be the American Record as she beat the current AR holder Molly Huddle by SIX (6) seconds when Molly ran the current AR of 14:44.76. Sally didn't run a 10000m in 2010 but rest assured she was definitely capable of 30:15 or faster last year which would be faster than the current AR.

So please stop with your nonesense.

The day they become citizens, they then have 2 years before they can represent the US. So neither will be in a US uniform before 2013 no matter how far along they are in the process.

Close, but not quite. I'm an immigration attorney, and frequently handle naturalization cases. If you are married to a US Citizen, then you only need to be a permanent resident for 3 years in order to naturalize (or, at least, to file the paperwork to naturalize). It will take a number of months more, of course, to actually naturalize.

It's um February.

JustDaFacts wrote:

I can't wait til Sally Kipyego is a U.S citizen as she is wants to represent the U.S and would be our top 5000m runner and the top 1 or 2 at 10000m. She again defeated one of U.S big middle distance stars today. Omg Sally and Jenny beat Kalkidan Gezahegne- did K. Gezahegne fall?

Women's 3000 Meter Run New Balance Final 5 Feb 2011

World 8:23.72 Meseret Defar ETH February 3 2007

American 8:33.25 Shalane Flanagan Nike January 27 2007

Meet 8:30.05 Meseret Defar ETH 2005

Place Athlete Name Yr Affiliation Time

1 Sally Kipyego KEN 8:49.74

2 Jenny Simpson USA 8:50.78

3 Megan Wright CAN 8:52.01

4 Kalkidan Gezahegne ETH 8:52.05

5 Frances Koons CAN 9:01.46

6 Liz Maloy USA 9:02.47

7 Julie Culley USA 9:05.00

8 Sara Hall USA 9:11.17

What? Americans have beaten them. At least Chelanga. I don't think this would take America much closer towards medaling in a major competition.

hmmmmm?? wrote:

If you can't beat them...import them

It is hard for our citizens to continually lose their spot on the U.S team to foreigners. We give them full college scholarships and then they take the spots on our U.S. teams. Must be hard for the citizens who work so hard.

Kenyan is sending imports all over world it won't be long before you see only Kenyans and Africans competing at distance events. Talk about a media problem and running will become less popular than ever. oh boy!