Will I ever be recognized as American?

People considered Alberto Saladbar an American and he was Mexican.

I think the Torres brothers, Ochoa, Salazar, add name here _________ might disagree with you.

I think Elva Dryer, Sylvia Mosqueda, add name here _____ might disagree with you with regard to Colleen de Reuck.

People don't ridicule Lagat because he is black. They ridicule him because he is from another country.

Will people get over this?

I don't consider Lagat an American runner because he _didn't start running here_ . Same with Khannouchi. They also represented another country. I don't consider Wilson Kipketer to be Danish and I don't think Qatar has a great national distance program. Am I racist?

I do consider Meb and Abdi Americans. They were not born here (I don't think), but their running careers were here all the way through. If Roger Black, Sonia O'Sullivan or any other great white foreign runner moved here, I'd still think they were British, Irish or whatever other nationality ...

The who ran for Oregon, then won NYC & Boston Marathons, is Cuban-American. Grew up in the Boston suburbs.

Let's see: Born in the USA = American.

If you win a race and wear a Mexican flag then I'd think less of you as far as being an American. Notice you said "I am a Mexican and born in America", so, you're putting Mexico first and saying you're a Mexican, not an American.

The Latino wrote:

I am Mexican and born in America.

If you are born in America you are American, not Mexican. You are of Mexican descent, heritage, etc. but you are American.

Ethnically your are Hispanic

Your nationality is American

Ethnicity and nationality are often confused.

You say will I ever be considered American, but you say in your post that you are Mexican? Sounds like you do not even consider yourself to be American

SB wrote:

Will people get over this?

I don't consider Lagat an American runner because he _didn't start running here_ . Same with Khannouchi. They also represented another country. I don't consider Wilson Kipketer to be Danish and I don't think Qatar has a great national distance program. Am I racist?

I do consider Meb and Abdi Americans. They were not born here (I don't think), but their running careers were here all the way through. If Roger Black, Sonia O'Sullivan or any other great white foreign runner moved here, I'd still think they were British, Irish or whatever other nationality ...

How much sense does that make? So if Lagat wants become an American (like millions of other immigrants) he's screwed out of all future world champs and Olympics?

And Wilson? He wanted to be Danish so badly that he gave up the 96 Olympics, which he almost certainly would have won.

team wrote:

You say will I ever be considered American, but you say in your post that you are Mexican? Sounds like you do not even consider yourself to be American

And this, my amigos, is the crux of the entire issue. My heritage is Swedish, but I was born and raised in America. Never have I claimed to be Swedish-American, demanded a holiday for Swedish-Americans, or draped a Swedish flag around my shoulders after winning a race. If you are born and raised here or go through the proper immigration procedures and fully embrace this great country, then you are American. Meb is an American, but I personally do not think he should be eligible for US distance records, simply because he did not spend his childhood here and he still shows off the Eritrean flag when he races.

Just because you don't feel any connection to your Swedish herritage doesn't mean that others can't recognize and feel pride towards their own herritage.

And how much of their childhood should they spend in the US to meet your standard? What's the magic number?

F***, he can pay taxes alright, and is subject to all US-laws, but when it comes to running, well, that's a horse of a different color.

There's a huge difference between feeling pride and blatantly exhibiting that pride in a sort of entitlement fashion. I mean, the entire English as an offical language I can't understand. Millions of immigrants before us came to this country and ADAPTED to it, not the other way around. Who would ever go to another country and refuse to speak the offical tongue? I would never dream of that kind of arrogance.

With regards to distance running, if Meb was born here, that would be different, because, while he may still possess distinct genetic advantages, he would be subject to the same cultural influences as anyone else here. But if you spend your childhood running at altitude and deprived of just about everything else, that gives you a huge leg-up in this sport.

As far as foreign runners coming here and being eligible for American records in a matter of a few years, well, that is tantamount to us sending our best 6'9" and above basketball players to the Congo and having them win an Olympic medal for that country. It is completely disingenuous, almost bordering on fraudulent.

And, frankly, I have been to Sweden several times, partaken in Swedish tradition, and connected with family over there. I feel a very strong connection, but I would never usurp my American upbringing in favor of my Swedish heritage. I am an American first, not a Swedish-American.

I will criticize you now for being stupid.

I have never seen one semi-intelligent post implying that someone was less of an American because of skin tone or racial background.

It's the geographic background that complicates things.

For record purposes, people like to have athletes all fit into individual buskets but it doesn't work and there should be no malice towards the athletes for this.

Lagat holds the National Record for two countries.

That confuses the definition of National Record.

Maybe you can compare it to transferring schools but with nationality there is also a heritage involved.

Let's just say that we are either men or women.

And if you were born a man and change that then you cannot get women's records.

But we're talking about citizenship here. They pay all the same taxes.

And as was pointed out on another thread, immigrants rarely survive past the third generation, so no fear with respect to English losing status.

I agree with you, though what do you do about a situation where, say, a kid comes to this country with his parents when he is 16 years old, and they paxes for a couple of years only. Should this kid get a free education over a kid who was born and raised here, whose parents paid taxes the whole way? It happens all the time. And yes, many scholarships are funded through private dollars, but those donating receive tax breaks, so it's the same thing really.

The challenge is distinguishing between who is American and who should be eligible for ARs? If we send our best tennis players over to Rwanda, where they don't play tennis, to win an Olympic medal, is that legitimate and genuine? As for the guy who said let's just draw the lines between man and woman, he's partly right, but in that case, what's the point in having the Olympics or national records, since, under that framework, nationality is thrown out? America's greatest strength is it's greatest vulnerability as well -- pluralism.

Another thing -- the point about assimilation by the third generation WAS a valid argument previously, but it no longer holds water. If you don't think there's a movement under the radar trying to elevate Spanish to the same level as English in this country, you are very blind or ignorant or both.

In previous years, as in the early 1900s people were coming from all over, so the language thing was different. Now we have tens of millions of people here from Spanish speaking countries and they want to make Spanish be on the same level as English. Now the U.S. is seeing a big increase in a relatively homogenous culture, and that will lead to problems. When it's Poles, Italians, Russians, Japanese, Chinese, Germans and on and on it's much different. What's going on now is tantamount to an invasion.