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

Happy wrote:

It is hard for our citizens to continually lose their spot on the U.S team to foreigners.

When has a US track team ever had a "non-citizen" team member?

If you don't like it then get training and beat them out for a team spot.

RuKiddingMe!! wrote:

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!

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.

No one has called you a racist on this thread. Stop making yourself the victim Johnny.

Blowing.Rock Master wrote:

[quote]Happy wrote:

It is hard for our citizens to continually lose their spot on the U.S team to foreigners.

Blowing.Rock Master wrote:

When has a US track team ever had a "non-citizen" team member?

He meant foreigners, as in, not white and of European ancestry.

RuKiddingMe!! wrote:

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!

imagine the media response, when a non african wins a big distance event, the media will give it an incredible amount of attention, like the USA 1980 olympic hockey team who beat the supposedly unbeatable soviets in the semifinals then beat finland on the way to the championship, or buster douglas beating the at the time the supposedly unbeatable mike tyson.

the non african winning big mens events will be a star.

note i said men as the african women distance runners are not nearly as dominating as the african men distance runners.

It no longer matters if you've represented another country or not - the minimum wait after a change in citizenship is now 2 years, and 3 if you have represented another country.

I'm not sure how that counts as "no longer matters".

Er, no. There will be some mild reporting by a few media outlets. If some European wins there will be less than mild reporting here in the US. We're not talking Cold War comparisons.

John's town wrote:

He meant foreigners, as in, not white and of European ancestry.

Oh. You mean like Carl Lewis?

Me and a friend was discussing foreign athletes who have already or will be applying for U.S citizenship. Sally has already applied for U.S. citizenship and yet will seek to make the Kenyan team for 2011 Worlds and 2012 Olympics.

Sally has a good chance to make the Kenyan team for 2011 and 2012. If she make the team it would delay her ability to compete for the U.S for another 3 years after the date she represented Kenya. So if she makes the 2012 team and her citizenship papers go thru she would be able to represent the U.S. at the 2012 and mostly likely 2015 Worlds.

My feeling is that if Sally makes either or both the 2011 Worlds or/and 2012 Olympics she will continue to try to represent Kenya.

If you applied for U.S citizenship and want the process stopped, is there a penalty once you re-apply?

CORRECTION:

So if she makes the 2012 team and her citizenship papers go thru she wouldn't be able to represent the U.S. at the 2012 and mostly likely 2015 Worlds.

So may still want to become a U.S citizen at a later date but she truly isn't concern with representing U.S.A if she is good enough to represent Kenya.

1.) Do you want athletes that show this type of behavior? Sam Chelanga isn't trying to represent Kenya and as a 27:08 guy who will improve this year, he has just as good of chance as Sally to make the Kenyan team.

2.) Is there a penalty for someone who applies for U.S citizenship and stop the process and then re-apply?

Because if she is granted citizeship in 2013 and makes either Kenya's 2011 or 2012 team she then wouldn't be able to represent U.S or Kenya, so she going to have to decide within the next year to continue or stop her U.S citizenship process.

Under the new Kenyan constitution, which was not in place when the Lagat switch happened, dual citizenship is permitted, meaning that Kipyego can become a US citizen and still retain her Kenyan citizenship and run for Kenya should she be selected. Her US citizenship would have nothing to do with her eligibility to run for Kenya, it would simply give her the option of choosing to run for the US after the waiting period expires.

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.

they did do that for a canadian figure skater in a recent winter olympics.

she changed from canadian to USA citizenship, after she surprinsingly did not make the canadian team, when she was favored for golds.

they said some politicians used connections to get her citizenship expedited, under an old law that made highly skilled individuals able to get fast citizenship.

the newscaster said they got her citizenship for her rare skill, and compared it to the european rocket scientist that were allowed immediate citizenship when we had a shortage of rocket scientist.

huntsville alabama is often called the rocket city as many rocket scientist wound up there, the locals used to wonder how did all these foreigners who could barely speak english and just came to the USA get these big expensive houses and expensive cars.

easy the USA saw a need for them so they recruited them with high pay for their skills, and they did not have to wait for citizenship like most people do.

sammy chelanga and sally kipyego have a rare ability to run fast at 5 and 10k.

East Africans will be given no advantages toward achieving US citizenship. Timing is bad politically. If they are currently in the system, then they have a chance to represent in 2016. If not, then it will be longer.