Another TALENTED foreigner seeking US citizenship

Is that sarcastic or do you really think its a good thing? i think its terrible that people can just switch for no reason! annoys me greatly!

There no exclamation marks in vipam's post!

so does that mean it is serious?

And he has only put ONE word in upper case!!! The mystery deepens. Is he just having a laugh?

what about everyone else? switching countries a good or bad thing? the kenyans seem to be going evberywhere--quatar, holland etc, aldama wants to eb british! What do you all think?? is this positive or negitive? i think it is a bad thing

I agree its a good thing, it pushes the home grown Americans to higher levels. I think Culpepper is a good example, having Meb and Abdi for his two main rivals.

Of course it's a good thing. What about it could possibly be bad?

i am talking fom a british prospective so i dont know if it works the same over there---but lets take the case of aldama wanting to jump for us. She gets gb citizenship--striaght away she is placed on lottery funding--money that could be going towards helping young british athlets reach their potential is now going towards making an already rich cuban even richer. Then she gets selected for the olympics or whatever event it is, suppose that including her 4 gb girls get the qualifing distance--a girl who has dreamed of going to the olympics all her life misses out becuase some cuban girl decided that she wanted to take her place!

I am english--i can not wake up tomorrow morning and suddenly decide that i now want to be a kenyan. It just shouldnt work like that! Will brits really feel patriotic and get behind her?

(i do not disagree with people who come to the uk for ligitamte reasons and end up with uk citazinship--(eg: mohammed farah) but aldama is moving becuase she "doesnt want to jump for cuba anymore"--seems to me that we have a better funding system if your a top level elite so she wants to increase her bank balance!

Well, once Aldama gets her GB citizenship, she IS a British athlete trying to reach her potential. The topic of whether a national governing body should give funding to naturalized athletes is slightly different than the one we started on (naturalized athletes being good for the country as a whole). But if the GB Athletics governing body's performance is judged by medal haul at the WC or OG (which uncertain), then it makes sense to fund a proven world class athlete rather than waste money on young athletes that will probably not reach Aldama's level no matter how much money is thrown in their direction.

yeah i have totally changed my opinion since reading that post--Why bother having a youth system at all when you can just get other countries to develop athletes and then we will just sign them up when they reach the top of senior level! (is Uk athletics following the "belgrave model" but on a world wide level?).

If aldama adds to our medal count does this show that gb is a more successful country in athletics than if she didnt? no. it just gives those who dont know any better a false impression. If i ever came 4th in a trials race and one of the athletes who beat me to a championship spot had defected for no good reason from another country i would be outraged!

She cant even speak english--there is nothing british about her. What right do people have to just change their nationality?? You are what you are!

secret fox wrote:

If i ever came 4th in a trials race and one of the athletes who beat me to a championship spot had defected for no good reason from another country i would be outraged!

Who would you be outraged at? The naturalized athlete for wanting a better training environment? The UK immigration, for allowing such a clearly horrible person to be naturalized? The national governing body, for deciding to treat all UK citizens as equal and give them all access to funding? Or yourself, for not finishing higher than 4th, regardless of who is in the race?

Kind of torn on the issue. I have no problem with foreigners coming to America to train if the training facilities are below standard in their country due to being a poor nation. I think it would be unfair for a country's GNP to play a role in the quality of atheltes. The US has virtually an unlimited supply of money to fund atheltes; some nations struggle just to feed their people. Or how about an athlete like Monica Seles who left Yugoslavia in part to avoid the war going on there at the time. I think its fine for foreigners with special circumstances to come here to train.

Becoming a citizen is a different issue. If a person decides to become a citizen of another country for purely athletic reasons then I feel this is wrong. It's not like changing teams in the NFL - it is changing allegiance to another nation. I find it hard to believe that a lot of foreign athletes who change citizenship truly feel a patriotic obligation to the United States. To me, it kind of makes a mockery of citizenship. Athletics appears more important than devotion to one's homeland.

Aldama is married to a British citizen (regardless of his crimes/past) and she has a son who is a British Citizen, its not like the situatiion with the kenyans, she has and had genuine reasons to seek citizenship regardless of her athletics.

she used him to try and gain a britsh passport--he used her for her cuban drug links--seems like they both tried to use eachother and he has come off worse--also she is getiing a divorce so hasnt (or wont have) a british husband!

i completely agree with carolinarunner--spot on.

Yours is the Xenophobic response of the classic ?Little Englander? and I suspect your reaction would be very different if the athlete in question were Kajsa Bergqvist instead of Yamile Aldama.

What football team do you support? Is the first XI entirely composed of English players? I doubt it. How do you feel about supporting a team with a French goalkeeper, an Irish winger and an Italian Striker?

I have no problem with athletes requesting citizenship on legitimately political terms- but I think the IAAF should follow FIFA's lead and not permit athletes to represent more than one country in their career.

Having said that ? I don?t think this should apply to athletes from tyrannical states such as Cuba, China et al.

Your implication that Yamile defected from Cuba to the U.K. ?for no good reason? is patently absurd.

Martin

Playing for a football team in the UK is totally different than competing for England...

for the record i support southampton--we have many foreign players and because we are not a national side this is fine. Would we allow a foriegner to play for england in the world cup? no. so why in the olympics? Your suggestion that my opinion on aldama would be different if she were better looking (ie bergquist) is absurd. I saw aldama competing in the high jump and relay at the bal gold cup match at hendon and cheered her on like everyone else--i thought it was a pleasure to witness such a high standard athlete at such a meeting. All i am saying is that i do not support her or any other other poeples wishes to just change their nationality just because they feel like it!

You mention that she does have good reasons...what are these? If she has good reasons--such as she has fled the country in fear of her life then i will back down--however, as it stands it seems to me that she wants our money!

Its stupid that they can move if this keeps going eventually we will have nothing but kenyans in distance races they will all live in different places but just because you move from your parents house to a friends house doesnt mean you not their child anymore. Boaz is coming here bcause he has no chance at the olympics there.

me too wrote:

Its stupid that they can move if this keeps going eventually we will have nothing but kenyans in distance races they will all live in different places but just because you move from your parents house to a friends house doesnt mean you not their child anymore. Boaz is coming here bcause he has no chance at the olympics there.

For the xenophobists out there, the burden of prevention is on a country's immigration bureau who actually hands out citizenship, not any one or organization involved with sports. As soon as, for example, USATF, stops treating all US citizens as equal, it opens up another can of worms and we will have far worse problems on our hands.