Susan Kuijken; the rightfull Euro 5k champ

*tries to leave

Eritrea's situation is what happens when you let Liberals control the government.

I am still angry that Alberto Salazar was allowed on the 1980 AND 1984 US Olympic teams. He should have been forced to run for Cuba.

TAA wrote:

Eritrea's situation is what happens when you let Liberals control the government.

Dude they totally have Obamacare over there. It's not even funny. *high five*

As long as we are kicking out those who represented nations where they were not born, we should add Sanya Richards-Ross. Having been born in Kingston, Jamaica, she should never have represented the USA. She and Al Salazar are certainly not "Americans" ... Perhaps the best solution is to just build a "genetic origin" blueprint and have athletes represent their particular genetic place of origin. That way everyone represents ... oh .. wait ... I guess every human represents Africa then.

oldendays wrote:

As long as we are kicking out those who represented nations where they were not born

No, we're not. 0/10. You fail at following the conversation.

oldendays wrote:

As long as we are kicking out those who represented nations where they were not born, we should add Sanya Richards-Ross.......

People like you should be banned for yapping on without reading the thread. LetsRun would be a much better place.

Sifan Hassan came from Ethiopia at the age of 15. Things aren't great there, which is why the Ethiopian diaspora is massive. Some of them happen to be good athletes. Hassan wasn't running competitively for Ethiopia, so why is this even a conversation?

As far as Bahta, the political situation in Eritrea makes Ethiopia look like paradise. There is no freedom of press, assembly, religion, nothing. It is a failed one-party state where those who try and flee are persecuted. Little to no economic opportunity. If you are not a member of any of the four registered religions there you are subject to imprisonment without trial. Bahta was running competitively for Eritrea, and showed promise as a junior athlete with a pair of top 10 finishes at World Juniors in XC. But does that mean she should have to stay in a place and compete for a country that's fundamentally unfree? Wouldn't you rather live in Sweden? Why shouldn't she be able to compete, especially after so many years?

"only AFTER 6 YEARS OF OFFICIAL RESIDENCE IN THE NEW COUNTRY."

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You have to think of the future. Runners coming from other continents only focus on the present. I really fear for the future of athletics.

The sport needs to be carefully managed. I have watched as the 80's "running boom" has ended. I would hate to see things get worse to the point of irrelevance.

Rules need implamintation and it isn't just a matter of preserving slots on the podium. It's about keeping atheltics vital and responding to the needs of its most important practictioners.

I don't expect African ex-pats to understand this but it is their best interests as well.

Robusto wrote:

"only AFTER 6 YEARS OF OFFICIAL RESIDENCE IN THE NEW COUNTRY."

--------------------------------------------------------

You have to think of the future. Runners coming from other continents only focus on the present. I really fear for the future of athletics.

The sport needs to be carefully managed. I have watched as the 80's "running boom" has ended. I would hate to see things get worse to the point of irrelevance.

Rules need implamintation and it isn't just a matter of preserving slots on the podium. It's about keeping atheltics vital and responding to the needs of its most important practictioners.

I don't expect African ex-pats to understand this but it is their best interests as well.

Based on your spelling your grammar, I am assuming you are either 12 years old, or English is not your first language.

I don't know where you live, but you have to think of the future. Even if your present requires forced military service, marriage by abduction, dictatorship, no press freedom, few job opportunities, and bringing a family into a country with little-to-no freedom.

Even if you have the talents to create a better life for yourself, and benefit others is a foreign country, you should think of the future. Who cares if your present is miserable, and they will through you in jail for saying something negative about the government.

These athletes need to accept a life of misery and repression for the future. They are destroying the sport. They should destroy their lives instead, but save the sport.

Why do you have a problem with this. Yes, it may not always be the most fair way, but if this person has a opportunity for a better standard of living, why wouldn't they do it. I bet most people on here would do so given the opportunity.

Area Man wrote:

3hunna wrote:

Why do you have a problem with this. Yes, it may not always be the most fair way, but if this person has a opportunity for a better standard of living, why wouldn't they do it. I bet most people on here would do so given the opportunity.

We don't have a problem with the athletes doing it, they're just looking out for themselves. We do have a problem with the federations allowing it. It wouldn't happen in other sports. Lionel Messi is a Spanish citizen but they would never allow him to switch to the Spanish team.

hmmm, i do see your point.

The point about Lionel Messi doesn't impress me at all. For one, Messi wants to compete for Argentina when he's not at his day job. His choice to have a dual residency reflects a) his supreme economic value, b) the relative freedom he has by virtue of wealth AND coming from a country that allows citizens to come an go more or less at will. To compare his situation with women from East African nations where most individuals (particularly women) are afforded far less freedom to come and go, is to ignore the political reality of the respective situations. I cannot imagine (unless you are a proud member of an outright fascist organization) that you would agree with your own comparison if you really knew what it was like to try and be free as a black women in a paternalistic nation with huge corruption problems. There is no mystery why young athletes try to leave those countries, even though they probably (under better circumstances) would love to stay home and represent their place of birth. [Even Haile Gebreselassie, who is almost a God in Ethiopia, has had his personal choices hindered owing to corruption and authoritarianism.)

To cling to anachronistic perspective that athletes should never represent a flag other than that under which they were born is paternalistic, naive, anachronistic, unrealistic and, frankly, silly. Borders and identity have always been fluid, and people should have the right to seek a better life and represent new nations. Obviously many people disagree with me, but for what it's worth, I believe that track should not cling to these old ideas. Whether or not you like it, the world is changing fast and your ideas about who is the "right" sort of Dutch runner--or who should run under going to look like very outdated perspectives within a generation. Look back to the Olympics in 1936 and think about what has changed since then, and look in the mirror.

vivalarepublica wrote:

Please don't make up these sorts of facts.

Off the top of my head, I can tell you that Eritrea was not an independent country 1989. I think 1993 was when they gained independence.

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/er.html

Eritrea seems to have some pretty miserable things going on, with the same a-hole in charge since independence. I think former citizens have plenty of reasons to leave the country as a refugee. Halt the taxi drivers in my city would rather do that than live in Eritrea.

My 'made up facts' were from Amnesty International.

When Eritrea became officially independent is pretty irrelevant. It still existed prior to independence.

trollism wrote:

vivalarepublica wrote:

Please don't make up these sorts of facts.

Off the top of my head, I can tell you that Eritrea was not an independent country 1989. I think 1993 was when they gained independence.

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/er.html

Eritrea seems to have some pretty miserable things going on, with the same a-hole in charge since independence. I think former citizens have plenty of reasons to leave the country as a refugee. Halt the taxi drivers in my city would rather do that than live in Eritrea.

My 'made up facts' were from Amnesty International.

When Eritrea became officially independent is pretty irrelevant. It still existed prior to independence.

I guess it depends how you define execution. Officially, no, they haven't executed anyone. Unofficially, there seems to be plenty of rumblings about extrajudicial killings and sending citizens off their imminent death in border wars with Ethiopia.

I happen to have the former American ambassador to Eritrea as a neighbor, and from what he tells me the human rights situation in both Eritrea and Ethiopia is dire. To quote him, "it makes the Salvadoran death squads look like a play group."

Africans invading European,Asian countries ? Well,I hear no complains

from Europeans when they invaded Africa,carved up the continent,made

Africans fight and die for them in two world wars and striped the continent

of most of its natural resources.Did not Europe and Asia flood African

markets with their goods ? If Africans are better than native European and

Asian athletes,then that is the price of competition.Is that not what others

preach to Africans ?