And all that while being SWEDISH, competing for SWEDEN and NOT THE USA.
That's my favorite thing about him.
Great, which other of our athletes would you care to take, grant citizenship to, and put a uniform on? I mean, help yourself.
Rich coming from an American. From the top of my head. Fisher should compete for Canada, Chelimo for Kenya, Lagat for Kenya, Salazar for Cuba. How many olympic and WC medals, top 5 international placements etc is that?
Mondo did grow up in the US, competed in HS in the US, but it’s his personal choice to compete for 🇸🇪. Same for Fanbullah. I like seeing different countries represented, the 5,000 had 4 continents competing.🏃🏼♂️
Great, which other of our athletes would you care to take, grant citizenship to, and put a uniform on? I mean, help yourself.
Rich coming from an American. From the top of my head. Fisher should compete for Canada, Chelimo for Kenya, Lagat for Kenya, Salazar for Cuba. How many olympic and WC medals, top 5 international placements etc is that?
Agree, at least re Lagat. And really we should simply eliminate competing under flags. It eliminates too many deserving athletes from these competitions. But let's Agree that Mondo is what he is....a lifelong American who wears a blue and yellow vest.
Rich coming from an American. From the top of my head. Fisher should compete for Canada, Chelimo for Kenya, Lagat for Kenya, Salazar for Cuba. How many olympic and WC medals, top 5 international placements etc is that?
Agree, at least re Lagat. And really we should simply eliminate competing under flags. It eliminates too many deserving athletes from these competitions. But let's Agree that Mondo is what he is....a lifelong American who wears a blue and yellow vest.
Or a guy with a swedish passport, living in sweden, talking swedish, having a swedish gf, son of a swede competing for the country he feel is the right one to represent.
Give it a rest. Mondo was born and raised in the United States and competed at LSU. He didn't even speak Swedish and probably continues to live and train in Louisiana. You were on stronger ground talking about the foreign-born American citizens who live and train in the United States, yet they had more connection to the country, because most of them went to college there and live and train there. Lagat's lived in the United States since the mid 1990s. Grijalva in the 5000m competed for Guatemala but has lived in the U.S. most of his life and was brought there as a child. As for Grant Fisher, he was indeed born in Canada but his parents are American and so he was an American citizen at birth. He has also lived in the U.S. virtually all his life.
If you're the greatest pole vaulter of all time and had the choice, would you be that in Sweden where you'd be the Lebron James/Tom Brady of that country, or in the U.S. where the average citizen only hears your name once every four years, maybe?
What a freak of nature. No one else cleared 6.00, and then he cleared 6.06 like he was messing around with high schooler heights. He cleared 6.21 like it was no big deal. And to him, it very well may be no big deal. I think he KNEW he was going to get it. The guy is just unreal. I seriously wonder if he's already cleared higher in practice, and he's just going to bump up the WR 1 cm at a time, Bubka style, and keep on collecting those sweet bonuses.
I think you should compete for the country you're from/live in, or have a minimum duration you lived there. Imagine if the high school state championships had people who live in one town going to one high school but they compete at state for the town their parents went to. That would certainly be something.