heywoodu wrote:
Actually she was sent to Holland by her mother. Here she was put in some sort of camp where she couldn't get outside and where her biggest wish was to die.
Only 8 months later she could move in with an older woman, where she slowly started picking up her running training.
A couple years later she moved to Eindhoven, where she could integrate in the local Ethiopian community and where she joined her first track club.
Doubt it
If Ethiopia is so miserable then why do Geb, Bekele, the Dibaba sisters and Defar all live there in huge luxurious mansions and soak in prosperity?
And why did Aregawi, AFTER Exiling to Sweden, go back to Ethiopia and train and still lives there?
Randy Oldman wrote:
Peter Andersson wrote:A lot of Brazilian soccer players have switched passports to other contries.
Even more Chinese table tennis players, aspecially among women where the European championships has seen more naturalized winners than not over the last decades.
Some Canadian hockey players that didn't make it to the NHL headed for Italy (and other southern Europe nations), came to stay and are now representing them.
Not really for political upheaval, right?
Oh, but all those Russian and Checz hockey players that defected in the 70s and 80s and stayed in the good ol' USA, they hade legit cause, right, even if they actually won fewer worlds and olympic medals than they would had they stayed home... ;-)
What does that have to do with defection?
White people can do it to make money, no-one bats an eye.
Yellow people can do it to make money, no-one bats an eye.
Olive people can do it to make money, no-one bats an eye.
But when black African runners start doing it to make money, every single case gets its own thread here! ;-)
Loot wrote:And why did Aregawi, AFTER Exiling to Sweden, go back to Ethiopia and train and still lives there?
Because before-fame and after-fame has different unwritten social rules and negotiating leverage in such countries - and most of the world allows two citizenships at the same time - so because she can!
Also, remember that Aregawi was FORCED to run for Ethiopia in the Olympics 2012, or not at all. She could have skipped it, the way old 800 meter man Kipketer choose Denmark over early carreer championships while waiting for citizenship, but she didn't wanna wait, so gear contracts (i.e money) and the status that comes with a gold medal probably paid a larger role than what country she formally represented.
Then there's tax reasons of course, way lower in Ethiopia than Sweden - again, money!
More important she has not yet evoked her lawful Swedish right to have old family members follow suit to get citizenship, so possibly they still have some kind of hold on her back in Ethiopia.
Or maybe it's this: She has promising younger siblings, so the aristos of Ethiopian Track might have cut her a deal that both sides involved will gain from long term. Don't be surprised if in five years you'll have some kin of hers on the circuit, with the same manager and gear contracts, but still formally running for Ethiopia.
New Slaves!