Olympics 2020 - All African-born US distance team: what would your reaction be?

You have to be a US citizen to make the Olympic Team, Donald.

If that's the case, I may just follow the US field events. Other than that I would follow some other countries.

No interest in following/watching US Africans.

What' honestly incredibly bad embarrassing to think is that the US Army has paid a ton of Africans to join the army and train with us/ they get citizenship and a handsome salary to win us medals and they are legit African.

First off, I’d like to just point out how idiotic this whole discussion is.

Athletics is one of the few mainstream sports that still ties success so closely to nationality and it’s so primitive. Everyone on this board is a homo-sapien — a human being and that should be the only prerequisite necessary to compete.

If the world championships was truly a WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP, I wouldn’t care if I saw a whole Kenyan, Jamaican, Russian, or Chinese field, as long as every athlete is the best of the best. The conversation also only holds out through the middle to long-distances here and only the male side at that. The question here isn’t about eligibility it’s about inferiority and I’ll admit that is a fair point to discuss. However, this comes down to an issue with the sport, not specific people.

On a final note, I personally think the large part of this comes from an observational perspective. If these WCAP guys were more familiar faces, I’m not sure this discussion would even be held. Imagine if Edward Cheserek and Justyn Knight were in the top 2 rather than Chelimo and the bunch. Maybe that’s a whole different conversation...

Real Real Bad wrote:

What' honestly incredibly bad embarrassing to think is that the US Army has paid a ton of Africans to join the army and train with us/ they get citizenship and a handsome salary to win us medals and they are legit African.

Are you embarrassed to think that foreign-born folk would fight for and give their lives for this country when people born on this soil use their wealth, power and influence to get out of serving in the military?

Frank Longer wrote:

As more African born U.S. distance runners begin to dominate the U.S. running scene, what would your reaction be if every event from the 1500 - Marathon was fielded by all African born runners in the 2020 Summer Olympics?

I am an immigrant myself and don't like it at all. I think the problem is America is allowing citizenship way to quickly so it appears these African born runners are just parachuting in and taking the spots of those who participated for years in domestic USA races.

Basically Americans want to see how the guy they raced agaisnt at a footlocker regional meet does at the Olympics.

They dont care how the guy does who lost against top Africans in Africa when the were a developing athlete.

If 15+ years of bonafide residency were required to represent USA that would change a lot for me.

On a side note my child potentially could make the Jr USA team this year. If they represented the USA as a junior does anyone know how long they would need to wait to represent there birth country in SR events? As of right now making a JR USA team is a lot easier than the SR USA team in part because of the parachute athletes (in addition to overall bigger numbers).

Salazar didn't come to america To be a pro runner, same for Meb . People need To stop comparing them with Chelimo, Khannouchi and all the WCAP guys who became american citizens for a better sponsorship.

Imagine if Qatar just buy all the top nba players and win the olympics, will you consider it as a Qatar victory which show the dominance of Qatar's basketball culture?

You should be a citizen. WCAP athletes should have to wait until they are citizens.

Thanks for the input. It’s nice to hear a relatively impartial input from someone on this thread.

I agree with the idea that it does feel as though the Kenyan runners seem to come from almost nowhere; the truth, however, is most decide to live here after years in college. Sam Chelenga, Paul Chelimo, and Eliud Rutto are just a few to name for example.

I think the idea that the residency rule would need to be applied more strictly to at least siphon this issue is a fair point. This would definitely have a negative effect on runners like Cheserek and Lagat on the opposing end though.

At the end of the day I still stand by my point... athletics and nationality shouldn’t run ties so closely. The idea that you have to consider where you want to live in tangent with who you compete for just bothers me. This isn’t to say nationality doesn’t matter in athletics, but Chelimo and Kipchirchir are US ARMY members and are just as American as anyone else because of that choice.

As for your kid, you should let them run. The odds of them making the team are low, but if they do end up making it, I don’t think junior allegiance carries as much weight as senior allegiance. Also, as their parent, I believe they’re already a citizen under your home country. The issue with allegiance switches is generally amongst seniors hoping to compete for another country strictly for competitive gains. Your child wouldn’t be doing that so I don’t see why there would be an issue as long as they don’t compete for the US as a senior.

Most of the guys are better than any Kenyan in their event so competitive disadvantage coming here

If they have US passports and compete for the USA, then they're Americans. However, they're bums if they don't medal and heroes if they do (like any other color in any other olympic sport.)

At the root of this discussion is the bizarre and outdated notion that national identity should be a big part of athletics competition. No successful, mainstream sport has this issue. Whether it’s football, basketball, soccer, tennis, or golf, It’s always the individual and/or club first, then maybe country as an afterthought.

Track needs to move on from the Olympic model. The Olympics are NOT designed to produce the best possible championship-level competition. If they were, there’d be a lot more than 3 Kenyan distance runners or 3 Jamaican sprinters there.

Track should implement a meaningful set of 3-4 professional “Majors”- meets that no top athlete would voluntarily miss, where there is real prestige and cash on the line. Then, maybe, whiny people would stop caring so much whether Kenyan-born runners compete for Kenya, the US, or Timbuktu.

I’m curious to know if these Kenyan born “people” would be in the US Army if they weren’t A) competative runners, and/or B) were second or third tier runners.

OK, the US Team should be made up only by native american indianas.

US of us wrote:

But I get your point --this is also a land of racism and fear of immigrants, even though damn near everyone in the country has an immigrant background. So, it's probably your nightmare becoming reality. Sweet dreams.

Yes, there is racism here but why do people harp on it? If this country was so awful, then why in the hell did Barack Obama's father decide to come here in 1954 when we were way more racist?

You do realize in Kenya in the last 10 years they have tribal warfare with up to 1,500 butchered and 180k to 600k displaced. I would say hating on someone for their tribe is not different than race. It's the same damn thing. So what you are complaining about exists basically all over the world - even basically all black countries.

Who cares. I would hope for the US team to be the best it can possibly be, irrespective of where its members were born.

GBohannon wrote:

When immigrants come to the USA, gain citizenship, and thrive in the economy, I feel happy. I like accepting immigrants based on merit and who has more merit than Olympians?

Wait... except I don’t like Kenyan-borns on my team; it ruins the sport! So even if they have merit, they aren’t quite good enough to be accepted citizens unless they are white.

#farrightlogic

I don't think it is simple as that. Meb isn't white, but is much more accepted as an "American" than those who moved here as adults.

What bothers me about the "came here for a better life argument" is then why if they came here for a better life do they spend half the time back in Kenya training? Doesn't really add up. Secondly, absolutely outrageous if someone makes the argument that the Army WCAP is anything but a shortcut to citizenship. Really hard to consider someone American just by living in the country for a couple years and having a passport. If an American born runner went to Mongolia, got fastrack to citizenship, then came back to train in Flagstaff constantly, I would imagine few people would consider him a true Mongolian.

I like the WCAP guys, they seem to get out and race more than the US born athletes and most of them were nobodies in the NCAA who improved dramatically. What's ridiculous and cheap is when countries like Turkey buy a bunch of Jamaicans and Africans, or when Americans compete for random countries they never lived in because they're not good enough to make it in the USA.