Watching the OG this year I noticed a lot of Kenyans and Ethiopians running for Bahrain. I looked up the Bahrain Olympic T&F team and found that out of 24 total competitors probably 13 (my guess based on names, possibly more if they change their names to something more Muslim) are from one of those 2 countries with a couple more appearing to be foreign as well. I know this has been common practice for some time among Qatar and Bahrain:
http://www.insidethegames.biz/...g-morality
http://in.reuters.com/article/...BP20140929
Why is this not a real controversy? I've never heard anyone comment on it on any streams despite mentioning the fact that some of the Bahraini athletes are from Africa. No one is willing to explain this. Seems like a morality violation that could be easily latched on to by people that care about the morality and sporting purity of the Olympics.
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- Bahraini east Africans, why no controversy?
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- RE: Bahraini east Africans, why no controversy? - in reply to sandybeaver
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All of the Bahrani runners are from Africa. This has been going on for decades. They pay good runners to take up Bahrani citizenship. Unless you are super patriotic, why not.
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- RE: Bahraini east Africans, why no controversy? - in reply to sandybeaver
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David Torrence is running for Peru. What's the problem?
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- RE: Bahraini east Africans, why no controversy? - in reply to sandybeaver
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So people should not be able to seek a better life?
I assume your line about morality and purity in Olympics is sarcasm. or naivety?
The rules allow for such transfers and they should.
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- RE: Bahraini east Africans, why no controversy? - in reply to luv2run
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Rashid Ramzi, of course, was a Moroccan running for Bahrain
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- RE: Bahraini east Africans, why no controversy? - in reply to Has Selfish Concerns
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Alexi Pappad for Greece. No problem with that either.
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- RE: Bahraini east Africans, why no controversy? - in reply to Run Doctor
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Sandy Richards, Kerron Clement, Hassan Mead, Bernard Lagat, and about a gazillion other other immigrants are running for the US. What's the problem?
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- RE: Bahraini east Africans, why no controversy? - in reply to byebyeshalane
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Some people also find it a problem that Lagat and others run for the US.
Sanya has been in the US since she was a school girl.
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- RE: Bahraini east Africans, why no controversy? - in reply to sandybeaver
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You must have been living in a cave.
sandybeaver wrote:
Watching the OG this year I noticed a lot of Kenyans and Ethiopians running for Bahrain. I looked up the Bahrain Olympic T&F team and found that out of 24 total competitors probably 13 (my guess based on names, possibly more if they change their names to something more Muslim) are from one of those 2 countries with a couple more appearing to be foreign as well. I know this has been common practice for some time among Qatar and Bahrain:
http://www.insidethegames.biz/...g-morality
http://in.reuters.com/article/...BP20140929
Why is this not a real controversy? I've never heard anyone comment on it on any streams despite mentioning the fact that some of the Bahraini athletes are from Africa. No one is willing to explain this. Seems like a morality violation that could be easily latched on to by people that care about the morality and sporting purity of the Olympics.
The BBC commentary constantly goes on about this fact in pretty much every event containing Bahrain, Qatar or Turkey.
Seb Coe has also talked about it extensively and he wants to change the rules.
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- RE: Bahraini east Africans, why no controversy? - in reply to byebyeshalane
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That's completely different. Bahrain buys athletes. Some Turkish athletes have never set foot in Turkey.
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- RE: Bahraini east Africans, why no controversy? - in reply to sandybeaver
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as far as i know the entire bahraini team is made up of kenyans,ethiopians jamaicans nigerians and moroccans.its been going on for a long time.and as for qatar,its likely their only real qatari athlete is the famale 400 meter runner.both countries have been buying africans for a very long time,and none of them actually live in those countries..turkey and azerbaijan also buys athletes.
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- RE: Bahraini east Africans, why no controversy? - in reply to jeff tallon
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Qatar's got the great high jumper Barshim, his dad was an athlete and he actually grew up there, if I remember the backstory correctly. It is true most of Qatar and Bahrain's athletes aren't from there, but this is noted by the British announcers often (see: today's marathon coverage)
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- RE: Bahraini east Africans, why no controversy? - in reply to ceviche
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good job bro and good remark
bahrain know how to invest in sport ,why the bahrain ironman r offering 1 million dollar to the winner of (traithlon chalenge winner )swiss lady picked up the purse last year ,the country is collecting the eggs(lot middle east )people start to get hooked to the sport ,today the country collected a silver medal ,talking money i believe the bronze medalist today at the marathon is making less money than the first american (7th overal)lady today ,because she is amrican but the bronze medalist is african ,lot injustice
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- RE: Bahraini east Africans, why no controversy? - in reply to driss dacha
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- RE: Bahraini east Africans, why no controversy? - in reply to byebyeshalane
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byebyeshalane wrote:
Sandy Richards, Kerron Clement, Hassan Mead, Bernard Lagat, and about a gazillion other other immigrants are running for the US. What's the problem?
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- RE: Bahraini east Africans, why no controversy? - in reply to Zlatan
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Some athletes run because Nike pays them. Some athletes run because they're from a wealthy country that pays elite competitors for Olympic visibility.
Some come from a country where running is controlled by Athletics Kenya, and where even Mary Keitany can't be sure of an Olympic start. Little surprise that some are happy to run for a wealthy government that is able to offer them a standard of living and international starts that they couldn't otherwise get.
Question (I don't know the answer): if an athlete gets injured or underperforms, which paymaster is more ruthless, Nike or Bahrain?
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- RE: Bahraini east Africans, why no controversy? - in reply to
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Your point about Mo being a different situation because he came over as a child is a good one.
luv2run wrote:byebyeshalane wrote:
While I am all for freedom of movement, I also think there are gradations of difference. For instance, Meb came to the US as a child. He was not recruited as a great runner.
Sandy Richards, Kerron Clement, Hassan Mead, Bernard Lagat, and about a gazillion other other immigrants are running for the US. What's the problem?
Others are basically free agents.
Also, I think some many of us (Americans and Europeans) see our citizenship as more important than people in some other countries do. In some areas (Middle East comes to mind) the boundaries are recent and tribal affiliation probably has more importance. Plus, someone offers you many, many times the average annual income for your country and you want to take care of your family and it has to be tempting. We (Americans and Europeans) have so many options to make a good living that we have a hard time understanding what real poverty is.
I certainly understand why athletes would want to run for another country if they are paid well.
But I think the OP has a point if countries are paying to have fast athletes run for them and are given a quick paper citizenship to allow this to happen. I think some residency requires such as length of time as citizen of the country you are representing would be in keeping with the spirit of the Olympics.
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- RE: Bahraini east Africans, why no controversy? - in reply to Conundrum
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Clement, Richards, Mead, immigrated to the US with their families when they were kids, very different then being adults who came over just to run.
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- RE: Bahraini east Africans, why no controversy? - in reply to Conundrum
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Countries are, and have done, for years. This is not new. I am amazed people did not realise that all the kiprotich's etc. running for the middle east are not actually Arabs.
Conundrum wrote:luv2run wrote:
Your point about Mo being a different situation because he came over as a child is a good one.byebyeshalane wrote:
While I am all for freedom of movement, I also think there are gradations of difference. For instance, Meb came to the US as a child. He was not recruited as a great runner.
Sandy Richards, Kerron Clement, Hassan Mead, Bernard Lagat, and about a gazillion other other immigrants are running for the US. What's the problem?
Others are basically free agents.
Also, I think some many of us (Americans and Europeans) see our citizenship as more important than people in some other countries do. In some areas (Middle East comes to mind) the boundaries are recent and tribal affiliation probably has more importance. Plus, someone offers you many, many times the average annual income for your country and you want to take care of your family and it has to be tempting. We (Americans and Europeans) have so many options to make a good living that we have a hard time understanding what real poverty is.
I certainly understand why athletes would want to run for another country if they are paid well.
But I think the OP has a point if countries are paying to have fast athletes run for them and are given a quick paper citizenship to allow this to happen. I think some residency requires such as length of time as citizen of the country you are representing would be in keeping with the spirit of the Olympics.
This is well known and has been talked about extensively.
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