If you could race in the Olympics for a small under represented country would you?

yes. is this a test to see how many yes answers a thread with a no brainer question gets

If this was some "get paid to change citizenship and run for small country X" deal, no. If I was a legitimate citizen of that country, of course.

No brainer? I've been seriously considering this...and considered posting this with a slightly different title. I can't make the US team but am 2nd fastest from a country I am 1/4 of and never been to! The top guy was 2:18 but he has now retired so technically I am the fastest with low 2:20s. I know it doesn't matter and I could never win...and imagine the flack I'd catch on this board...but why not?

f*** yes i would do this. as long as you had some familial ties the country

I'd run for North Korea if they let me.

areusure? wrote:

No brainer? I've been seriously considering this...and considered posting this with a slightly different title. I can't make the US team but am 2nd fastest from a country I am 1/4 of and never been to! The top guy was 2:18 but he has now retired so technically I am the fastest with low 2:20s. I know it doesn't matter and I could never win...and imagine the flack I'd catch on this board...but why not?

Isn't there an Olympic standard time that you have to be under in order to compete, regardless of country? I thought it was 2:15.

I know a guy whose brother competed for Guam. I think every country is allowed to send one person to the Olympics for track and field, even if they don't have anyone qualify, and Guam hadn't qualified anyone. So they let this guy go. I guess it was a bit of a political process to decide the guy and the event.

I wouldn't want to do that. I'm too slow, it would just be embarrassing and I wouldn't feel right lining up against those guys.

Growing up in NYC I felt kind of similarly. To get to the city championships you had to qualify by time, but the winner of the borough championship races were allowed in automatically. I won my borough mile in 5:08 (I think my PR was 5:00) and didn't want to get embarrassed in the city race. Maybe I should have. Oh well.

I think I would do it.

I would run for Andorra or San Marino, and possibly for Tonga

A 2.14.59 marathon would get you on the Irish team for the Olympics I think. As long as you have some connection they'd let you run (eg. Cragg)

areusure? wrote:

No brainer? I've been seriously considering this...and considered posting this with a slightly different title. I can't make the US team but am 2nd fastest from a country I am 1/4 of and never been to! The top guy was 2:18 but he has now retired so technically I am the fastest with low 2:20s. I know it doesn't matter and I could never win...and imagine the flack I'd catch on this board...but why not?

That's what I mean! I'm half of a country I've been to twice and have family still living in. Running isn't popular there, and girls especially don't run (way too dangerous to do without a body guard).

You don't think it's sort of like stealing a spot? Even though the country has no one else, having grown up NOT in that country isn't it just a little bit wrong? I feel like it would only be ok if you then promised to help that country get someone native to the olympics...

I'd do it in a heartbeat if I was fast enough. I'm just a hobby jogger so I would be like Eric the Eel in that swimming race. That would be too embarrassing to me.

I actually had this happen.

I was living on a small island, an independent country. I had been there two years. I was their marathon champ twice. They asked me to go to Montreal 1980.

I wrote to the State Department.

They wrote back, amazingly quickly, too.

They basically said: Fine, but you lose your US passport, and don't try coming back here.

So I did not make any changes, and did not represent that nation.

Yes, but I would train like a maniac to try and put up a reasonable performance

olympic glory wrote:

If you could race in the Olympics for a small under represented country would you?

Let's say that you can run for this small country but NOT for the US (too slow for US, fast enough for small country). Would it be worth running in the Olympics?

Are you Merlene Ottey? :)

I would love to be a representative of Madagascar. Putting myself on the line for all of those little critters in the movie. I don't know if they have people, but I'd represent them too.

ukathleticscoach wrote:

Yes, but I would train like a maniac to try and put up a reasonable performance

A little off track, but your comment reminds me of Dieudonne Lamothe from Haiti. He didn't represent a new country, but he did turn himself from appalling to respectable (Montreal '76 5000m 18:40, LA '84 marathon 2:52:18, Seoul '88 marathon 2:16:15 for 20th).

cheaterz.. wrote:

areusure? wrote:

No brainer? I've been seriously considering this...and considered posting this with a slightly different title. I can't make the US team but am 2nd fastest from a country I am 1/4 of and never been to! The top guy was 2:18 but he has now retired so technically I am the fastest with low 2:20s. I know it doesn't matter and I could never win...and imagine the flack I'd catch on this board...but why not?

Isn't there an Olympic standard time that you have to be under in order to compete, regardless of country? I thought it was 2:15.

I have not checked this recently, but at least through 1996 if a country had 0 track and field athletes make at least the B standard (Olympic standard), that country was given 1 spot in an event of its choosing. There is also some sort of IOC program that allows for developing nations to send a few athletes in an effort to jump start their Olympic programs.

luv2run wrote:

I have not checked this recently, but at least through 1996 if a country had 0 track and field athletes make at least the B standard (Olympic standard), that country was given 1 spot in an event of its choosing. There is also some sort of IOC program that allows for developing nations to send a few athletes in an effort to jump start their Olympic programs.

I think that's still true. However, I seem to remember there was some sort of limitation on what events a developmental athlete could participate in. I seem to remember you couldn't enter a developmental athlete in the decathlon. Not sure what other events were included (and I could be remembering the whole thing wrong).